Constitutional Law on the Prosecutor's Office: Status, Principles, Functions, Guarantees
Status and principles
This domain tests the Constitutional Law on the Prosecutor's Office as the operational charter of the service: legal status, principles, functions, appointment and guarantees.
- The Prosecutor's Office is a single, centralized, hierarchical system headed by the Prosecutor General; lower prosecutors are subordinate to higher ones.
- Principles include legality, unity and centralization, independence, transparency to the extent compatible with secrecy, protection of human rights, and interaction with state bodies and society.
- Functions include supervision over execution of laws, operational-search activity, inquiry and preliminary investigation, and places of detention; criminal prosecution; representation of state and public interests in courts; coordination of law-enforcement activity; and international cooperation.
- Guarantees include independence, personal security, material and social provision, and special procedures for disciplinary and criminal liability. A prosecutor may not be a member of a political party, engage in business, or combine service with incompatible paid work.
Worked example
An investigator refuses a citizen's complaint and issues a refusal to initiate a case. The supervising prosecutor checks the complaint, the refusal decision and the materials. If the refusal is unfounded, the prosecutor quashes it and orders a new verification, because supervision is over legality, not over the investigator's tactical discretion.
Traps
A guarantee is not personal immunity for crime. A prosecutor does not become an investigator or a court. Transparency does not override investigative secrecy.