Negotiated justice from the perspective of the criminal procedure code

• Author: Gina Negrut - Adriana-Iuliana Stancu
• Position: Faculty of Police, the Criminal Law Department, 'Alexandru Ioan Cuza' Police Academy, Bucharest, Romania - Faculty of Law, Social and Political Sciences, The Administrative and Regional Sciences Department, 'Dunarea de Jos' University, Galati, Romania
• Pages: 118-125

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, www.juridicalj ournal.univagora.ro

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No. 2 (2012), pp. 118-125

118

NEGOTIATED JUSTICE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE

G. Negrut, A. I. Stancu

Gina Negru

Faculty of Police, the Criminal Law Department

“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police Academy, Bucharest, Romania

* Correspondence: Gina Negrut, 1A Privighetorilor Alley, sector 1, Bucharest, Romania

E-mail: gina.negrut@academiadepolitie.ro

Adriana-Iuliana Stancu

Faculty of Law, Social and Political Sciences,

The Administrative and Regional Sciences Department

“Dunarea de Jos” University, Galati, Romania

*Correspondence: Adriana Iuliana Stancu, “Dunarea de Jos” University, 111 Domneasca St.,

Galati, Romania

E-mail: adriana.tudorache@ugal.ro

Abstract

The introduction of this institution in the contents of the Criminal Procedure Code

1

represented a challenge for the Romanian legislator whose concern was to solve the cases on

trial in the context of necessity to ensure expedience in a fair trial, the application of these

rules in judicial practice facing difficulties in the absence of transitional provisions.

Keywords: evidence presented in the criminal investigation phase, guilty plea,

sentence reduction.

Introduction

The idea of negotiated justice or consensual justice

2

appeared in the context of

changes that characterized the Penal Law of the 1970s, when the phenomenon of increasing

crime has generated a real criminal justice crisis in the European States

3

, characterized by

the inability of the judicial bodies to solve criminal cases on trial (the demand was increasing

steadily, while the supply was shrinking), law enforcement becoming selective, even

incomplete in some cases. In this context, the removal of the criminal cases from courts by

diversifying the methods used in the sphere of criminal procedural law was the saving

solution in an attempt to halt this inflation

4

.

In this sense, the conflict mediation agreement emerged as a more easily accepted and

implemented solution than an imposed sentence, the very existence of the expression

“consensual justice” or “negotiation”, as an institution of criminal law meaning at first

glance a paradox, considering that the traditional format of the criminal law is completely

alien to discussions, concessions or compromises

5

.

1

Forward Criminal Procedure Code used as Romanian Criminal Pro cedure Code.

2

See J. Pradel, Consensualisme en droit penal compare, 1988 in Boletim da Faculdade de Direito d e Coimbra,

pp. 1-46.

3

F. Tulkens, Surcriminalisation et decriminalization: les choix de la justice penale aux Etats –Unis a la fin des

annees 1960, Document de travail, no. 17, 1987.

4

H. Jung, Alternativen zur Garantie Individueller Rechte der Betroffenen , Bonn, 1987.

5

J. Pradel, op.cit., pp. 1-46.