Judges and prosecutors work in a courtroom and they have different roles which they play in the courtroom. The roles of judges in the courtroom are to rule on cases and ensure that law is fully followed without showing bias (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2003). The roles of prosecutors include crime investigation with the help of the police, proving whether the prosecuted persons are guilty or innocent and to be present in the court.
Judges are independent because they have to give rulings on cases based on the available evidence and not based on their association with the prosecutors or the defense teams. That means judges have to weigh arguments from both sides and rule in accordance with the law. Both sides have to be given a fair hearing without the demonstration of any bias ( Taleb & Ahlstrand, 2011 ). On the other hand, the prosecutors’ independence is demonstrated by how they carry their investigations. Neither the judges nor any other party ought not to influence them. For example, they need to present water-tight cases to ensure that criminals or offenders are brought to book. Regarding interdependence, judges rely on prosecutors to conduct investigations to ensure justice is served while prosecutors need judges to listen to their evidence and arguments, as well as to decide on the fate of the accused. Therefore, no case can be decided without the involvement of the other. One advantage of the collaboration is that it ensures that offenders are brought to justice, but the disadvantage especially to judges is that prosecutors may bring false evidence to court to implicate suspects. When judges rely on such evidence to incarcerate victims, they may later receive the greatest share of blame.
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Nevertheless, the interdependence needs to be professional because of some ethical issues which might arise. For example, if judges only rely on the evidence of the prosecutors and ignore that of the defense team, then justice may not be served. The judges may be accused of bias, and the prosecutors of collaboration to deny individuals justice.
References
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2003). Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers.
Taleb, A., & Ahlstrand, T. (2011). The public prosecutor, its role, duties and powers in the pre-trial stage of the criminal justice process–a comparative study of the french and the swedish legal systems–. Revue internationale de droit pénal , 82 (3), 523-540.
