Effective application of criminal-law mechanisms in human rights protection : the function of criminal prosecution in contemporary criminal justice systems

This study seeks to identify and define the extent to which the features of the procedural obligation to investigate, prosecute and, if appropriate, punish criminal attacks on human rights determine the contemporary understanding of the function of criminal prosecution. The study observes that in practical reasoning of contemporary criminal justice discourse this procedural obligation operates as a rights-based assertion of effective application of criminal-law mechanisms in human rights protection, which is, together with the public-based component of the prosecutorial activity, conformed within the overall structure of the function of criminal prosecution. On the basis of these conceptual premises, the study observes that a proper configuration of the individual-based and public-based components in the structure of the charging process is a precondition for the valid operation of the function of criminal prosecution in practical reasoning. This is conceived as a matter of procedural optimisation and a conceptual framework for such an optimisation is proposed