Discretionary criminal justice in a comparative context
By: edited by Michele Caianiello, Jacqueline S. Hodgson
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Durham, North Carolina
Language: eng
Number of pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9781611637731
Subjects: Prosecution; Judicial discretion; Congresses; Decision making
Description: "This volume brings together a broad range of scholars working within a variety of procedural traditions in Europe, North America and China. The first section contains three papers that address the use of discretion during the investigation and prosecution stage of criminal proceedings; the second section deals with negotiated justice and various types of plea agreements in Spain, China and Italy. In the third section, different approaches to the exclusion of evidence are discussed relating to Switzerland, Germany and a potential EU approach. The fourth section discusses discretion in relation to the death penalty in the U.S. At the heart of these issues is the problem of reconciling prosecutorial and judicial discretion with the principle of legality. The need to avoid arbitrary decisions is key, but the authors come to differing conclusions as to the impact and value of judicial discretion at different stages of the process and in different jurisdictions. Discretion is the theme of the collection, and the writers of this collection believe it can be characterized in positive terms, as it ensures that justice is tailored to the individual and to the facts of the case, rather than being applied mechanically. However, without a clear legal framework, it risks allowing arbitrary decisions based on bias or other legally irrelevant factors. All of the papers collected in the book teach us something about the way that discretion plays out in different systems and how it is understood and adapted within existing legal norms and cultures. Together with the University of North Carolina and the University of Basel, the authors have established a research network on comparative criminal justice - The Future of Adversarial and Inquisitorial Systems - which holds an annual conference. This collection is the fruit of the conference held in Ravenna in 2013"--Unedited summary from book cover.
Notes: "This book contains the results of a 2013 conference in Ravenna ... organized by the University of Bologna (campus of Ravenna), the University of North Carolina, the University of Warwick, and the University of Basel ..."--Acknowledgments.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Discretionary justice at the initiation of a criminal investigation / Lorenzo M. Bujosa Vadell; title: Prosecutorial discretion in three systems : balancing conflicting goals and providing mechanisms for control / Sara Sun Beale; title: Investigative and prosecutorial discretion in criminal matters : the contribution of the Italian experience / Stefano Ruggeri; title: The principle of legality, discretionary justice and plea agreements : the practice in Spain / Lorena Bachmeier; title: Beyond legitimate grounds : external influences and the discretionary power not to prosecute in the People's Republic of China / Yu Mou; title: Critical aspects on the Italian features concerning "negotiated justice" / Daniele Vicoli; title: Water always finds its way; title: discretion and the concept of exclusionary rules in the swiss criminal procedure code / Sabine Gless & Jeannine Martin; title: Throw it all out? Judicial discretion in dealing with procedural faults / Thomas Weigend; title: Procedural sanctions in the EU framework : toward a harmless error doctrine and practice? / Michele Caianiello; title: Death and discretion : the American experiment in capital jurisprudence / Erik Luna.