Arrangements and Agreements at the Pre-Trial Stage in the German Criminal Procedure

Abstract

Modern criminal procedure tends to employ the increasing number of various kinds of agreements, arrangements, which results, in the practical sphere, in the facts that special procedures displace ordinary investigation and the subsequent ordinary procedure of judicial proceedings. In the Russian criminal procedure, special procedures for making a court decision are becoming increasingly common with the consent of the accused with the charge brought against him or when concluding a plea agreement. In the American criminal procedure, the conviction of the accused based on his plea has become regular, and a full trial by the court is an exception. The Russian criminal procedure by its nature tends more towards the continental criminal procedure and historically German and French criminal procedures have had a great influence on its formation, thus, it seems interesting and informative to familiarize yourself with foreign experience, in particular with the German one. Russian and German criminal trials are based on the principle of legality, or lawfulness, where the investigation and consideration of the case are subordinated to one of the principles of the process: the comprehensiveness, completeness and objectivity of the investigation of the circumstances of the case. Recently, both Russian and German criminal trials have started using arrangements and agreements more. In contrast to the Russian criminal procedure, the German one faced the problem of arrangements and agreements much earlier. Therefore, Germany has already developed a well-established practice of their application and theoretical justification and it seems important to consider the German experience in terms of the application of arrangements and agreements in criminal proceedings in order to comprehend the designated problem.