Editors Blog
Votes in it?
9 Oct 08
Surely no advantage in electing our prosecutors
A paper from the think tank Reform Scotland suggests that the 11 area procurator fiscals in Scotland should be elected, in a similar manner to district attorneys in the USA.
The independent group, which has right-wing leanings, says the elections would not be political but would be "between legal professionals fought on the policies and attitudes the individual would adopt in office". The aim is a more transparent justice system, allowing fiscals to respond to regional needs.
Does that not happen already? And if you have, say, someone elected on the promise to get tough on drugs, will that not simply create a patchwork system with an offender who may be subject to the jurisdiction of more than one court, facing a different level of penalty depending who gets to bring the case?
How could it work alongside serious matters being referred to Crown Office? Would there be any point in the scheme if not?
I confess I have always thought of the US practice of electing prosecutors as alien to our system. I still do.