Quality Control in Preliminary Examination

This is the second of two volumes entitled Quality Control in Preliminary Examination. They form part of a wider research project led by the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP) on how we ensure the highest quality and cost-efficiency during the more fact-intensive phases of work on core international crimes. The 2013 volume Quality Control in Fact-Finding considers fact-finding outside the criminal justice system. An upcoming volume concerns quality control in criminal investigations. The present volume deals with ‘preliminary examination’, the phase when criminal justice seeks to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed to full criminal investigation. The book does not specifically recommend that prosecutorial discretion in this phase should be further regulated, but that its exercise should be more vigilantly assessed. It promotes an awareness and culture of quality control, including freedom and motivation to challenge the quality of work.

Volumes 1 and 2 are organized in five parts. The present volume covers ‘The Normative Framework of Preliminary Examinations’, ‘Transparency, Co-operation and Participation in Preliminary Examination’, and ‘Thematicity in Preliminary Examination’, with chapters by Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee, Cynthia Chamberlain, Matthew E. Cross, Elizabeth M. Evenson, Shannon Fyfe, Gregory S. Gordon, Alexander Heinze, Jens Iverson, Dov Jacobs, Alexa Koenig, Mark Kersten, Shreeyash U Lalit, LING Yan, Asaf Lubin, Christopher B. Mahony, Felim McMahon, Nikita Mehandru, Chantal Meloni, Mutoy Mubiala, Jennifer Naouri, Ana Cristina Rodríguez Pineda, Andreas Schüller, Usha Tandon, Pratibha Tandon, Vladimir Tochilovsky and Sarah Williams.