Suchergebnisse

Prosecutorial Independence and the Democratic Requirement of Accountability in Italy : Analysis of a Deviant Case in a Comparative Perspective.
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 balance : a) to insure prosecutorial independence ; b) to insure that prosecutorial discretion be subject to the democratic principle of accountability. While a trend to redress the balance in favor of prosecutorial independence seems to gain momentum in several countries, the author uses the Italian case to suggest that the need for prosecutorial accountability be anyway protected. In particular he shows that Italy by totally 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 policies. The manifold dysfunctional consequences for the efficient repression of criminal phenomena and for the effective and equal protection of civil rights are outlined.