Plea bargaining or simply plea of guilty - the possibility to simplify criminal procedure

Plea bargaining is a very important feature of criminal procedure in common law countries. It is the way to administer justice avoiding expensive trials and reducing the workloads of prosecution, defence and court, saving their time as well. Despite these advantages of such a procedure it does not correspond to some legal principles and basic rights of a defendant and even a victim. That is why it fairly deserves to be criticized not only in continental law system countries but in such countries as England and Wales themselves. But there are some European countries examples described in this article which show that it is possible to incorporate the basic elements of the original plea bargaining according to the specific character of the national criminal procedure and the requirements of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The experience of foreign countries, in particular the Codes of Criminal Procedure of Italy and Russia, the draft of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Estonia and some German scholarships' ideas persuade us that a defendant who admits his guilt of committing a crime and (or) refuses the right to trial in case of minor crimes can speed the criminal process and reduce its costs without any big inconsistency with fundamental requirements of a democratic criminal procedure. In case of such a decision of defendant appropriate sentence reduction on regular basis according to law must be applied. The plea of guilty is also included in the criminal procedure of Lithuania. But the trial is compulsory in any case. In this sense, some amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure can be made and the goal to simplify the criminal procedure can be achieve