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 common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

is required to press charges if there is sufficient evidence to support a conviction. This system is used in Germany. It has also been required by the

Constitution of Italy The Constitution of the Italian Republic ( it, Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana) was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended sixteen times, ...

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 plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or ''nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendant ...

. A 2012 comparison in the context of

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has applic ...

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."Nakao, Keisuke and Tsumagari, Masatoshi, Discretionary vs. Mandatory Prosecution: A Game-Theoretic Approach to Comparative Criminal Procedure (March 4, 2012). Asian Journal of Law & Economics, Vol. 3, Iss. 1, Article 6, 2012. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2015779 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2015779

References

Prosecution {{law-stub