4. The Position of the Public Prosecution Service in the New Swiss Criminal Justice Chain

Swiss Criminal Procedure Code (Criminal Procedure Code, CrimPC) of 5 October 2007, SR 312.0; also referred to as CCrP (Gilliéron 2014) or CPC.

In Switzerland, a variety of terms are used for the prosecution authorities; for the sake of simplicity, we have generally used the term public prosecution service (PPC) for the organisation, and prosecutor for the individuals.

Cantons Fribourg, Glarus, Solothurn (until 2004), Vaud, Valais and Zug (until 2007).

Also called examining judges or investigative judges; in Belgium “juge d’instruction/onderzoeksrechter”; in Switzerland before 2011 “juge d’instruction” in the French speaking part, “Instruktionsrichter”, “Untersuchungsrichter” or “Verhörrichter” in the German speaking part.

Cantons Appenzell A.Rh., Bern, Basel-Landschaft, Grisons, Lucerne, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz and Thurgau.

Cantons Aargau, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Uri.

Cantons Appenzell I.Rh., Basel-Stadt, St. Gallen, Solothurn (since 2005), Ticino, Zürich and Zug (since 2008).

Federal Act of 15 June 1934 on the Administration of Federal Criminal Justice (in force until 31 December 2010).

According to the Military Criminal Procedure Code, SR 322.1.

Federal Act on Administrative Criminal Law, SR 313.0.

Swiss Juvenile Criminal Procedure Code of 20 March 2009, SR 312.1.

Minor criminal acts that are punishable only by a fine (Art. 103 of Swiss Criminal Code [SCC] of 21 December 1937, SR 311.0).

Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of 18 April 1999; SR 101.

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4 November 1950; SR 0.101.

Art. 352 para 1 CrimPC: “If the accused has accepted responsibility for the offence in the preliminary proceedings or if his or her responsibility has otherwise been satisfactorily established, the public prosecutor shall issue a summary penalty order if, having taken account of any suspended sentence or parole order that must be revoked, it regards any of the following sentences as appropriate: (a) a fine; (b) a monetary penalty of no more than 180 daily penalty units; (c) community service of no more than 720 h; (d) a custodial sentence of no more than 6 months.” The summary penalty order is a proposed and provisional judgment (Gilliéron 2014, p. 226). A written objection to the summary penalty order may be filed with the public prosecutor within 10 days. If the public prosecutor decides to stand by the summary penalty order, it sends the files immediately to the court of first instance for the conduct of a trial. If no valid objection is filed, the summary penalty order becomes a final judgment.

Cantons of Bern, Freiburg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Nidwalden, Uri and Zug.

Cantons of Aargau, Appenzell I.Rh., Appenzell A.Rh, Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Glarus, Graubünden, Lucerne, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Schwyz, Ticino, Vaud, Wallis and Zurich.

Cantons of Obwalden and Thurgau.

A report by the Swiss government (Federal Council) on draft legislation.

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court declared such general instructions and orders to be constitutional (see leading case/precedent of 21 October 1981, BGE 107 Ia 253, E. 3a).

Different descriptions of the status by Gilliéron (2014) or Arn et al. (2011) are due to definitions and actuality.

Cantons Appenzell I.Rh., Appenzell A.Rh., Freiburg, Glarus, Graubünden, Jura, Neuchâtel and Schaffhausen.

See footnote 15.

Cantons Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Jura, Lucerne, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen, Solothurn, Wallis and Zug.

Cantons Aargau, Bern, Freiburg, Schwyz and Zurich.

Cantons Geneva, Glarus, Neuchâtel, Schaffhausen and Ticino.

Such as the motivation (Behn and Robet 1995, p. 3018ff) of the police in criminal investigation.

In 2014 a survey by the authors in a cantonal prosecutor’s office 21 prosecutors without leading function indicated the trust into police with an average index of 8.0 (out of 10) and thus higher than the average of Swiss population in a national survey with an index of 7.5 (Tresch and Wenger 2014, p. 102f).

Survey by the authors (January 2015) asking the attorney general of the cantons.

Swiss school mark system (grade system; Schulnoten): 6 = very good (A grade; sehr gut), 5 = good (B grade; gut), 4 = sufficient (D grade; genügend), 3 = insufficient (F grade; ungenügend), 2 = fail (schwach), 1 = total fail (sehr schwach).

Survey by the authors (January 2015) asking the attorney general of the cantons.