The Prosecutor in Transnational Perspective
Erik Luna and Marianne Wade
Abstract
The American prosecutor plays a powerful role in the judicial system, wielding the authority to accept or decline a case, choose which crimes to allege, and decide the number of counts to charge. These choices, among others, are often made with little supervision or institutional oversight. This prosecutorial discretion has prompted scholars to look to the role of prosecutors in Europe for insight on how to reform the American system of justice. This book demonstrates that valuable lessons can be learned from a transnational examination of prosecutorial authority. The book examines both parall ... More
The American prosecutor plays a powerful role in the judicial system, wielding the authority to accept or decline a case, choose which crimes to allege, and decide the number of counts to charge. These choices, among others, are often made with little supervision or institutional oversight. This prosecutorial discretion has prompted scholars to look to the role of prosecutors in Europe for insight on how to reform the American system of justice. This book demonstrates that valuable lessons can be learned from a transnational examination of prosecutorial authority. The book examines both parallels and distinctions in the processes available to, and decisions made by, prosecutors in the United States and Europe. Ultimately, the book demonstrates how the enhanced role of the prosecutor represents a crossroads for criminal justice with weighty legal and socio-economic consequences.
Keywords:
prosecutor,
American justice system,
prosecutorial discretion,
Europe,
prosecutorial authority,
criminal justice
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199844807 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199844807.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Erik Luna, editor
Professor of Law, Washington & Lee School of Law, Lexington, VA
Marianne Wade, editor
Senior Researcher, Max Planck Institute, Freiburg, Germany
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