Abstract
In adversarial systems of justice like the United States, prosecutors possess a tremendous range of discretion. They may leverage that power to bring criminals to justice, as well as to ruin the lives of the innocent. In contrast, since the enactment of the first codes of criminal law and procedure in the late nineteenth century, the German criminal justice system has attempted to constrain, if not banish, prosecutorial discretion. In this book, I have demonstrated that,while the German attempt to banish discretion has failed, German prosecutors today struggle to balance their duty to find the truth with rising caseloads. In the final analysis, the organizational culture of the prosecution, rather than the law decisively shapes how prosecutors exercise discretion.
Some of the material in this chapter originally appeared in an article printed in the Journal of Crime, Law and Social Change. It reappears here with permission.
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Notes
- 1.
2 BvR 2155/11.
References
Books, Articles and Online Publications
Jung, H. (2004). Nothing but the truth? Some facts, impressions and confessions about truth in criminal procedure. In A. Duff et al. (Eds.), Trial on trial (pp. 147–156). Portland: Hart Publishing.
Press Release, Federal Constitutional Court. 19 March 2013. No. 17/2013. Legal Regulation of Plea Bargaining is Constitutional-Informal Agreements are Impermissible. Available at: http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg13-017en.
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Judgment of 19 March 2013, 2 BvR 2628/10
Judgment of 19 March 2013, 2 BvR 2883/10
Judgment of 19 March 2013, 2 BvR 2155/11
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Boyne, S.M. (2014). Conclusion: Achieving the Promise of German Criminal Law. In: The German Prosecution Service. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40928-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40928-8_9
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