Immutability principle
The immutability principle ( Latin: immutabilis = unchangeable, unchangeable) is a principle of criminal procedure.
Germany
The immutability principle follows from the accumulation principle . The indictment set the prosecutor defines the act that will set the accused a burden, time and place of its commission, laying the criminal procedural agenda item fixed ( § 200 Code of Criminal Procedure). Insofar as the court then allows the indictment, the subject matter of the judgment is only the life matter described in the indictment - the act in the sense of criminal procedure ( Section 264 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). An extension of the indictment in the main hearing is only permitted with the consent of the accused ( Section 266 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The court must point out a change in the legal aspect or the situation ( Section 265 StPO).
Switzerland
The immutability principle follows from the indictment principle, according to which the indictment determines the subject of the trial for all instances and thus only the facts described in the indictment can be assessed. The court is bound by the facts set out in the indictment. According to Art. 333 of the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure , the public prosecutor's office can, under certain conditions, change the indictment in the main proceedings or add newly discovered crimes. A matter that has not been charged in the first instance cannot, however, be submitted to the appellate body for the first time for decision.
literature
- Friedrich-Christian Schroeder : The immutability principle as a feature of the inquisitorial criminal process , in: Goltdammer's Archive for Criminal Law , 2011, 501
