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"Prosecutorial Regulation Versus Prosecutorial Accountability"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of an important new paper from Stephanos Bibas now avaialble here via SSRN. Here is the paper's abstract: No government official has as much unreviewable power or discretion as the prosecutor.  Few regulations bind or even guide prosecutorial discretion, and fewer still work well.  Most commentators favor more external regulation by legislatures, judges, or bar authorities.  Neither across-the-board legislation nor ex post review of individual cases has proven to be effective, however.  Drawing on management literature, this article reframes the issue as a principal-agent problem and suggests corporate strategies for better serving the relevant stakeholders.  Fear of voters could better check prosecutors, as could victim participation in individual cases...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 13, 2008 (boomark / email).