Plea bargaining in major german corporate criminal proceedings - an empirical study negotiated Judgements

Abstract

In August 2009, the German Parliament passed a law that allows for plea bargaining, a fundamental change in the German Code of Criminal Procedure. Whilst the German practice of plea bargaining is harshly criticized by academic discourse, there is little empirical knowledge on the concrete course of plea bargaining negotiations. This study seeks to provide an insight into the precise course of plea bargaining negotiations in an effort to reveal the normative order that underlies plea bargaining proceedings in corporate criminal trials. Interviews with the participants of major German corporate criminal proceedings show that trust and diplomacy characterize the beginning of plea bargaining negotiations. These negotiations mostly take place secretly, but in major corporate criminal proceedings, the general public is informed about the plea bargaining, because the legal practitioners want to maintain the public‘s trust in the justice system. Plea bargaining can be seen as an effort to maintain basic tenets of criminal procedure and to enforce principles of criminal law even in complex corporate criminal cases.