| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The British Journal of Criminology 38:371-387 (1998)
© 1998 Centre for Crime & Justice Studies (formerly ISTD)
RESEARCH-ARTICLE |
PROSECUTORIAL INDEPENDENCE AND THE DEMOCRATIC REQUIREMENT OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN ITALY
Analysis of a Deviant Case in a Comparative Perspective
Study and Research Centre on judicial Systems, University of Bologna. This artide is a revised version of a paper presented on behalf of the International Society of Social Defence at an ancillary meeting of the IX UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and die Treatment of Offenders (Cairo, May 1995). The original version was published and distributed in a limited number of copies together with the other reports on the same subject (De Figuereido Dias et al. 1996)
This article deals with the role of public prosecution and the necessity of combining at the operational level two functional needs that are difficult to reconcile: (a) to ensure prosecutoriai independence; (b) to ensure that prosecutorial discretion be subject to the democratic principle of accountability. While a trend to redress the balance in favour of prosecutorial independence seems to be gaining momentum in several countries, the author uses the Italian case to demonstrate that the need for prosecutorial accountability be protected. In particular he shows that Italy by ignoring the need to render prosecutorial discretion accountable has de facto delegated to a totally independent prosecutor the definition of a good part of its criminal policy. The manifold dysfunctional consequences for the efficient control of crime and for the effective and equal protection of civil rights are outlined.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  H.-E. Sung Democracy and Criminal Justice in Cross-National Perspective: From Crime Control to Due Process The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May 1, 2006; 605(1): 311 - 337. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|