Public Prosecutor’s Office: Role, Structure, and Legal Duties
The Public Prosecutor’s Office: Role and Purpose
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MF) is a body responsible for promoting justice, defending legality, citizens’ rights, and public interest. It acts ex officio or at the request of stakeholders, ensuring the independence of courts and the satisfaction of social interests.
Objective Dimension of the Public Prosecutor
This involves impartial judicial activity aimed at protecting procedural or substantive law. Specifically, it supports charges in criminal processes, protects fundamental rights, and defends the European Community (EC). It acts as a primary party in all protection processes, defends victims or those at a disadvantage as a substitute procedure, assumes the defense of children, the incapacitated, and the vulnerable, and generally serves the public interest protected by law in any relevant process.
Subjective Dimension of the Public Prosecutor
In this dimension, the nature of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MF) is debated. Doctrine discusses whether it belongs to the executive or judicial branch. While its dependence on the executive is often asserted today, this cannot be fully argued in court. Even though its activity involves the court, it does not fully exercise or enjoy judicial independence. For this reason, the MF is expressly forbidden from issuing resolutions restricting fundamental rights outside of detention.
Organization of the Public Prosecutor’s Office
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MF), integrated with functional autonomy within the judiciary, exercises its mission through its own bodies. It operates according to the principles of unity of action and hierarchical subordination, subject in all cases to legality and impartiality. These principles can be systematized into:
- Organic or Organizational Unity (and dependence)
- Functional or Performance (legality and impartiality)
Core Principles of the Public Prosecutor
Legality and the Opportunity Rule
By the principle of legality, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MF) acts subject to the Constitution, laws, and other legal norms. It rules, reports, and exercises actions as appropriate, or opposes improperly acted measures as provided by law. If an MF member considers a superior’s order contrary to the rule of law, they can bring their disagreement to the attention of the Board of Taxation. However, the Board’s report is not binding, and the superior’s order prevails due to the principle of hierarchical subordination; the subordinate prosecutor must abide by the superior’s order.
Impartiality
Based on this principle, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MF) acts with full objectivity and independence in defending entrusted interests. The MF does not defend its own rights or interests, but rather those of others, as well as socially relevant assets and public interests. Its performance is characteristic of an impartial party.
Key Duties of the Public Prosecutor
Objective Civil Defense of Legality
The MF is defined as the most zealous “guardian of the law,” defending legality, both constitutional and statutory.
As a Defender of the Constitution
It is incumbent upon the MF to:
- Ensure respect for constitutional institutions and fundamental rights and freedoms.
- Intervene in judicial proceedings as required.
- Bring constitutional complaints and intervene in Constitutional Tribunal (CT) processes involving the defense of legality.
The basis of this legitimacy resides in its role of defending the Constitution as the supreme law.
As an Advocate for Ordinary Law
The MF is responsible for defending laws that protect socially relevant property or the public interest, encompassing both procedural law and mandatory substantive matters.
Subjective Function
From a subjective point of view, concerning the rights of citizens, the MF is responsible for:
- Exercising duties assigned by specific legislation in juvenile justice, guiding actions in the best interests of the child.
- Intervening in civil cases prescribed by law when social interests are committed, or when they affect children, the incapacitated, or the helpless, especially when ordinary representation mechanisms are insufficient.
- Ensuring procedural protection of victims, promoting support mechanisms and effective assistance.
- Preventing illegal arrests.
- Visiting detention centers.
- Promoting habeas corpus.
To achieve these tasks, the MF:
- Gathers information from all proceedings.
- Issues orders and instructions to the judicial police.
- Practices preventive arrests.
- Makes a “diligent report” prior to the Coroner’s “Preliminary Proceedings” upon receipt of a complaint.