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Police and Prosecutions: Vanishing Differences between Practices in England and Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Michael Jasch

Extract

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Police powers of discretion to discontinue criminal proceedings are rather exceptional in Europe, where most Criminal Justice Systems are based on some kind of principle of legality. Germany and England may be regarded as contrasting examples for different decision-making-models on the question whether or not to prosecute an offender. Germany, with a principle of compulsory prosecution theoretically guiding the work of public prosecutors—compared to England, where already the police have significant powers of discretion when deciding about a case. In recent years, however, the differences between the practice of these principles seem to have vanished: Whereas some German federal states have started to involve police in prosecution decisions, policy makers in England try to restrain the traditionally wide discretion of police in dealing with cases of minor crimes. Interesting lessons that might be useful for future harmonization of European criminal justice systems can be drawn from the experiences in both countries.

Type
Public Law
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 10 , 01 October 2004 , pp. 1207 - 1216
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

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