Compulsory prosecution is an aspect of certain justice systems in which the

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

is required to press charges if there is sufficient evidence to support a conviction. This stands in contrast with discretionary prosecution, where prosecutors are given a wide latitude whether and how to prosecute. Compulsory prosecution system is used in Germany. It has also been required by the

Constitution of Italy The Constitution of the Italian Republic () was ratified on 22 December 1947 by the Constituent Assembly of Italy, Constituent Assembly, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against, before coming into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the p ...

since 1948. In the United States and other countries that do not require compulsory prosecution, the lack of such a requirement has a tendency to encourage the practice of

plea bargaining A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include ...

. A 2012 comparison in the context of

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

suggests "that mandatory prosecution outperforms discretionary prosecution when evidence transmission from the prosecutor to the judge is accurate and/or when the cost of litigation incurred by the prosecutor is large."

References

Prosecution {{law-stub