Guilty-Plea Procedures
authors
keywords
- Criminal justice
- Plea bargaining
- England
document type
ARTabstract
Faced with the common problem of excessive and unreasonable length in modern criminal justice, the guilty plea procedure promoted in European as well as domestic law has become central to both the French and English penal systems. Studying preexisting factors underlying the influence of summary procedures in France, England, and Wales helps us understand the reasons for guilty pleas, their paramount role in the development of negotiated justice in each of these systems, and how they have undeniably improved the clearance rate of criminal cases. Nevertheless, safeguards are required to maintain well-balanced criminal justice processes, which will be both efficient and legitimate. Under these conditions only, guilty pleas, being part of both French and English new public management trends, can provide a genuine tool of penal policy aiming at improved efficiency in the criminal process through prompt handling of criminal offences.