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The functionality of the criminal justice system

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The project has also involved five senior researchers/postdocs Ragnar Auglend (UiB), Johan Boucht (UiO), Gert Johan Kjelby (UiB), Annika Suominen (UiB) and Rasmus Wandall (Lund University) - , two PhD students -  Marte Habberstad Mo and Katrine Holter – , and three master’s students (60 CET) – Mia Abrahamsen, Stine Borge and Charlotte Evjen Helgesen.

Scientific advisory committee

 

Project higlights

Successful conferences with a large number of participants, including key practitioners
from target groups and output in the form of scientific publications:

■A symposium on the “Fundamentals of Criminal Law in collaboration with the project Criminal Law Theory:A New Norwegian Approach”.
■A conference on domestic violence, at the interface between criminal law and child welfare law. Report in the journal “Tidsskrift for Strafferett”.
■Workshop with practitioners: “People’s sense of justice and its influence on the criminal justice system”.
■Conference on police and prosecution law: “The duty of enforcement and exercise of discretion. Legality and the principle behind the police and prosecuting authority’s discretionary power to waive prosecution”.
Watch the video from 2016 (in norwegian)
■Concluding workshop with practitioners from all parts of the criminal justice system


High-quality scientific publications in national and international journals:
■The book “People’s sense of justice and its influence on the Criminal Justice System – perspectives from theory and practice”.

Joint research project with the Ministry of Justice:
■“Rettsliggjøring og rettslige rammebetingelser for effektiv kriminalitetsbekjempelse”.

Emergence of a new project funded by Bergen Research Foundation NOK 15 million:
■Police and Prosecution Law (2017-2021), based on the results achieved in the Functionality of the Criminal Justice System project.

The overall aim an focus of the project

The project ‘Functionality of the Criminal Justice System’ has explored the functional dimension of the criminal justice system, with particular focus on police law and criminal procedure. More specifically, the aim has been to contribute to a deeper understanding of the functional premises for the different norms, concepts and institutional practices of the system. The research strategy has been to concentrate on certain specific topics/areas following the lines along which the main functions of the criminal justice system are organised: the fundamental aims and prerequisites for a criminal justice system, legislation, the police and prosecution service, the procedure in courts, the correctional service and the interfaces between these institutions and the public. Through the individual projects, the project has also contributed to a deeper understanding of the criminal justice system as a (functioning) whole, as well as to new insights into specific aspects of the system.  With regard to this, the project and the different individual research projects have been designed to reflect all central aspects of the system – its conceptual foundation, its key functions of legislation, investigation and judgment, its central rule systems of police law, criminal law, criminal procedure and administrative law etc.

The project has also integrated research on the interaction between the criminal justice system and other areas of law, such as tort law, mental health law and constitutional law, in addition to developments in EU criminal law and its interaction with national criminal law. Another main goal of the research strategy has been to make an impact on how the different actors in the system work to improve strategies, priorities and communication between different sectors.

More about the project

The project has been funded by Bergen Research Foundation