4 ms·

I can't find any EU state other than Ireland where it's not the case.

skissane 5y ago
According to [0] prosecutors in France have broad discretion over when to prosecute. Prior to 2013, the French Minister of Justice (a politician) even had the power to give prosecutors directions regarding how to proceed in individual cases, whether to prosecute or not. There was great concern in France that this power might be abused in case of political corruption (to protect the Minister's political allies, or harm the Minister's political enemies), so in 2013 the law was changed to remove this power. However, the Minister of Justice retains the power to give French prosecutors legally binding guidelines on how to exercise their prosecutorial discretion – when to prosecute and when to not do so – so long as those guidelines are in general terms, and not directed at any individual case. Unlike French law, German law does have a principle of compulsory prosecution – a prosecutor has a legal duty to prosecute every serious crime of which they become aware – but the principle has collided with the reality that German prosecutors simply don't have the funding or resources to carry out that principle in practice. It really functions as an ideal rather than a reality. And increasingly, German law is being reformed to acknowledge that reality of prosecutorial discretion – a good example is StPO § 153 [1], under which prosecutors can formally decline to prosecute a crime if doing so would not be in the public interest – although unlike the English or French system, German prosecutors must seek the approval of a judge to do so. I think you are from a European country which has a German-derived legal system, and are falsely generalising from that to the entire EU, ignoring that France (and I would assume other European countries with French-derived legal systems) approach this issue rather differently. You also seem to be focusing on the theoretical principles underlying German-based legal systems, unaware that those principles are often more theory than practice. [0] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2433732 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2433732 [1] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stpo/__153.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stpo/__153.html
- emteycz 5y ago
  Thanks for this interesting information, I stand corrected

According to [0] prosecutors in France have broad discretion over when to prosecute. Prior to 2013, the French Minister of Justice (a politician) even had the power to give prosecutors directions regarding how to proceed in individual cases, whether to prosecute or not. There was great concern in France that this power might be abused in case of political corruption (to protect the Minister's political allies, or harm the Minister's political enemies), so in 2013 the law was changed to remove this power. However, the Minister of Justice retains the power to give French prosecutors legally binding guidelines on how to exercise their prosecutorial discretion – when to prosecute and when to not do so – so long as those guidelines are in general terms, and not directed at any individual case. Unlike French law, German law does have a principle of compulsory prosecution – a prosecutor has a legal duty to prosecute every serious crime of which they become aware – but the principle has collided with the reality that German prosecutors simply don't have the funding or resources to carry out that principle in practice. It really functions as an ideal rather than a reality. And increasingly, German law is being reformed to acknowledge that reality of prosecutorial discretion – a good example is StPO § 153 [1], under which prosecutors can formally decline to prosecute a crime if doing so would not be in the public interest – although unlike the English or French system, German prosecutors must seek the approval of a judge to do so. I think you are from a European country which has a German-derived legal system, and are falsely generalising from that to the entire EU, ignoring that France (and I would assume other European countries with French-derived legal systems) approach this issue rather differently. You also seem to be focusing on the theoretical principles underlying German-based legal systems, unaware that those principles are often more theory than practice. [0] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2433732 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2433732 [1] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stpo/__153.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stpo/__153.html

emteycz 5y ago
Thanks for this interesting information, I stand corrected