Reshaping plea bargaining in European criminal justiceGarbatavičiūtė, Simona (Avtor) Mihelj Plesničar, Mojca (Mentor) plea bargainingcontinental legal traditioncriminal procedureprocedural valuessafeguardsadversarialismcontemporary continental criminal procedureThis doctoral dissertation conducts a study of plea bargaining in the European criminal justice system. It focuses on the phenomenon of the rapid pervasion of plea bargaining in European criminal procedures in spite of the prevalent opinion that this legal tool is incompatible with the values of the European criminal justice system. This discrepancy has encouraged the course of this doctoral research. One of the starting points of this research is to examine the changing face of European criminal procedures, most of which originated as inquisitorial ones. As a result, this research looks at the influences that have affected European criminal procedures since the end of WWII. The findings indicate that current criminal procedures in Europe consist of both inquisitorial and adversarial aspects, and it is suggested that the term of contemporary continental criminal procedure is used whilst referring to European criminal procedures. Determining the new set of features that continental criminal procedures have, led to the examination of their interactions with plea bargaining. This doctoral research aims to define not only the obstacles that plea bargaining in Europe faces, but also the legal justifications that allow for the accommodation of the mechanism of plea bargaining within the inquisitorial framework of contemporary continental criminal procedure. Simultaneously, efforts are put into examining the extent to which plea bargaining has been reshaped in contemporary continental criminal procedure, whilst undergoing the process of “transplantation”. For this purpose, a comparative analysis has been employed, i.e. this research seeks to highlight similarities and differences between French, German and U.S. federal plea bargaining models. This research shows that, despite the limitations that European plea bargaining faces due to the fact that it operates within an inquisitorial framework, many values of contemporary continental criminal procedure are still threatened, and this is the reason why a set of specifically tailored procedural safeguards, which are also examined in this doctoral research, must be in place in order to establish more European value-friendly plea bargaining models.20202020-10-03 09:00:02Doktorsko delo/naloga121312sl