Models of the prosecutor’s office in the mechanism of distribution of state power: experience of foreign countries

It is indicated that the prosecutor’s office occupies a special niche in the system of state institutions of modern countries, implementing supervisory functions regarding compliance with the rule of law and representing the interests of the state and society. However, the place of the prosecutor’s office in the structure of the distribution of state power is characterized by significant differences in different legal systems of the world, which necessitates the study of international experience in the organization of prosecutorial bodies. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the institutional status of the prosecutor’s office in the system of distribution of state power. Various models of organization of prosecutorial systems in foreign countries are studied and their features are identified. Five main groups of countries are distinguished according to the criterion of positioning of the prosecutor’s office in the state mechanism: countries where the prosecutor’s office functions in the structure of the Ministry of Justice; countries where the prosecutor’s office is part of the judicial system; countries where the prosecutor’s office is formed as an independent system of administrative bodies; countries where the prosecutor’s office is accountable to state and party bodies; countries where the prosecutor’s office or its analogue is absent. The article analyzes scientific approaches to the optimal place of the prosecutor’s office in the system of public administration, which vary from its inclusion in the legislative, executive or judicial branches of power to its functioning as a separate control and supervisory branch of power. Particular attention is paid to two main models of the existence of the prosecutor’s office in the judicial system: full integration into the judiciary while maintaining administrative autonomy and structural subordination to the bodies of justice with a functional orientation to ensuring justice. The classifications of typologies of prosecutorial bodies proposed by Ukrainian scientists and their compliance with the realities of modern legal systems are considered. It is substantiated that the optimal model of the prosecutor’s office should ensure its effective functioning as an autonomous structural unit of the state apparatus, capable of performing specific tasks in the field of ensuring legality and law and order, while simultaneously maintaining balance in the system of institutional checks and balances. A positive trend towards the inclusion of the prosecutor’s office in the justice system has been noted, which meets European standards and contributes to a clearer definition of its place among other state authorities.