Prosecution in Practice

As societies evolve, so do the conditions under which law emerges, is applied, and is understood. These devel­op­ments affect not only substantive criminal law but also the procedural rules that govern the course of criminal proceedings and the decisions made by prosecuting authorities. To grasp the relationship between legal norms and societal evolution, it is not enough to examine statutory provisions alone; an assessment of the concrete circumstances in which these norms are interpreted and implemented in the daily work of law enforcement agen­cies is equally necessary.
This is where the project begins. Its focus is on criminal proceedings and the questions of how prosecutorial decisions are made, how they are shaped by various organizational, institutional, and profes­sional frameworks, and how these frameworks influence the application of procedural requirements in practice. Based on this empirical investigation, recommendations for the further development of procedural law will be proposed.