The ownership of criminal action and the archiving of the police investigation

Abstract

The text examines the ownership of criminal action by the Public Prosecution Service and the archiving of the police investigation, arguing that the 1988 Constitution, by enshrining functional independence and the exclusive ownership of public criminal action, imposes a new discipline on the investigation, which must proceed directly between the Police and the Public Prosecution Service, without intermediation of the criminal court. It analyzes art. 28 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and demonstrates that the Judiciary's participation in archiving is merely bureaucratic, depriving the holder of the action of the possibility of internal review. It concludes that archiving must occur within the Public Prosecution Service itself, with publicity of decisions, as a corollary of the constitutional principles of ownership and functional independence.