Discretion and Accountability in a Democratic Criminal Law

Citation

Duff RA (2017) Discretion and Accountability in a Democratic Criminal Law. In: Langer M & Sklansky DA (eds.) Prosecutors and Democracy: A Cross-National Study. ASCL Studies in Comparative Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 9-39. https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/law/comparative-law/prosecutors-and-democracy-cross-national-study?format=HB&isbn=9781107187559

Abstract
First paragraph: What kind of practice of prosecution is appropriate to a democratic polity’s criminal law? What should the role of prosecutor be in such a system of criminal law? Such questions beg important prior questions: they assume that democratic polities would not only maintain distinctive systems of criminal law, but would so structure the criminal law as to have a recognisable role of ‘prosecutor’. To justify such assumptions, we would need an account of democracy, of the kind of criminal law that would be appropriate to a democratic polity, and of the institutional structure of such a criminal law, but the most I will be able to do here is gesture towards the shape such an account should take.

People

Professor Antony Duff

Emeritus Professor, Philosophy