Plea Bargaining in National and International Law: A Comparative Study

Plea bargaining is one of the most important and most discussed issues in modern criminal procedure law. Based on historical and comparative legal research, the author has analysed the wide-spread use of plea bargaining in different criminal justice systems. The book sets out in-depth studies of consensual case dispositions in the UK, examining how plea bargaining has developed and spread in England and Wales. It also goes on to discusses in detail the problems that this practise poses for the rule of law by avoiding procedural safe-guards. The book draws on empirical research in its examination of the absence of informal settlements in the former GDR, offering a unique insight into criminal procedure in a socialist legal system that has been little studied. Drawing on her research findings, the author goes on to discuss the extent to which plea bargaining should be developed in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as the question of this practise is set to be one of the seminal debates in the development of international criminal procedures in the new International Criminal Court.

Plea Bargaining in National and International Law will be of particular interest to academics and students of international criminal law, criminal procedures and comparative law.

1. Introduction 2. Development and the Impact of Plea Bargaining in the English Criminal Justice System 3. Informal Settlements in Germany 4. Socialist and Liberal Criminal Justice 5. The Absense of Informal Negotiations in the Former GDR 6. Plea Bargaining in the International Criminal Court 7. The Informality of Informal Procedures