Public Prosecution vis à vis the Protection of the Legal System and the Protection of Fundamental Human Rights

Explores the role of the public prosecutor in facilitating the administration of justice in a legal system and protecting fundamental human rights of persons affected by the application of the criminal law.

The apparently dual role of the prosecutor might suggest that there is a dichotomy in the public prosecutor’s role between ensuring an efficient criminal justice system that plays its vital part in protecting the public from crime and in maintaining a fair system that fully respects the human rights of those individuals who become subject to the system. However, a system that is not fair and respectful of human rights is one which ultimately cannot be efficient and may contribute to a breakdown in society. The two aspects of the public prosecutor’s role are therefore not truly opposed and should be complementary but there is a tension between the two aspects and where this tension is felt the prosecutor does execute an important function in balancing some of these competing interests. What some of those tensions are and how a prosecutor might ease them in a balanced manner is the subject of this paper.