(1) The article is an abbreviated translation of an article with the title « Aklagarollen », published in the Scandinavian journal: « Tidskrift for Rettsvitenskap », 78, 1965, pp. 85-116. It is based on a longer study of the prosecutor's work and role, made possible by a research grant from Emil Heijnes Foundation for Legal Research in Stockholm and has been published in mimeographed form under the title « Aklagararbete och aklagarroll » by the Institute of Criminal Science at the University of Stockholm in 1963.

(2) The title in French is better, viz. «Procureur général à la Cour de cassation».

(3) The reason why the article is strongly influenced by ideas of legal sociology is the author's year of study as a graduate student during 1959-1960 at the Department of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

(4) Ginsburg (Ruth Bader) and Bruzelius (Anders): « Civil Procedure in Sweden » (The Hague, 1965), pp. 69-71, 79-91 and 98-104.

(5) See Rommetveit (Ragnar): « Social Norms and Roles » (Oslo, 1953), p. 41 and Goldschmidt (Verner): « Retlig Adfœd I», (Copenhagen, 1957), p. 29, according to whom the system of social norms that aims at a certain official is his social role.

(6) On professional ethics in academic professions generally vide Durkheim (Emile): « Professional Ethics and Civic Morals » (Lonlon, 1957), pp. 6-9 and 15.

(7) The Norwegian legal sociologist Aubert has pointed out that a prosecutor's office not only has to handle incoming legal cases but also can act according to a preconceived plan, e.g. to create precedents, vide Aubert (Vilhelm):« Rettssosiologi » (Oslo, mimeo.), p. 37. The hierarchic organization of the Department of Public Prosecutions with a unitary and central direction makes it an institution in sociological meaning. Cf. Parsons (Talcott): « Structure and Process in Modern Society » (Glencoe, Ill, 1960), p. 177.

(8) Cf. On the filling of gaps in official patterns of action Michael (Jerome) and Adler (Mortimer): «Crime, Law and Social Science» (New York, 1933), pp. 40-41 and 251-252.

(9) The age of criminal responsibility in Sweden is 15 years.

(10) For scientific viewpoints on this change of criminal policy vide Sveri (Knut): « Atgärder mot ungdomskriminaliteten sedda mot bakgrunden av kriminalitetens allmänna utveckling i de nordiska länderna under de senaste aren i Nordisk Tidskriftsfor Kriminalvidenskap », 1962, pp. 38-40 and Rengby (Sven): « Atalseftergifterna enligt 1944 ars lag under de senaste aren i Svensk Juristtidning », 1964, pp. 254-265.

(11) Vide Weber (Max): « The Theory of Social and Economical Organizations » (New York, 1957), pp. 330-334 and « Essays in Sociology », translated, edited and with an introduction by Gerth (H. H.) and Mills (C. Wright) (London, 1949), pp. 196-198.

(12) For sociological analysis of a local prosecutor's office vide Persson (Britt-Mari), Barnavardsnämnd och aklagarmyndighet vid beslut om atalseftergifter in Sociologiske meddelelser (Copenhagen, 1961), pp. 104-105 and 117.

(13) Vide Weber (Max): « The Presuppositions and Causes of Bureaucracy in Reader in Bureaucracy» edited by Robert K. Merton a.o. (Glencoe, Ill., 1952), pp. 66-67.

(14) Cf. Blau (Peter M.): « Bureaucracy in Modern Society » (New York, 1956), p. 30.

(15) The German judge Hellwig has characterized the same phenomenon in trial lawyers as « man's forensic change ». Vide Hellwig (Albert): « Psychologie und Vernehmungstechnik bei Tatbestandsermittlungen » (4th edit., Stuttgart, 1951). When the legal technique is applied it is also important that the reference-frame of a word, e.g. a legal term, is a function of the connection in which the word appears. Vide Ross (Alf): « Om ret of retfœr dighed » (Copenhagen, 1953), p. 137. The book is of great interest both on the problems of legal interpretation and the techniques of legal argumentation.

(16) Cf. «On the reaction that the Danish lawyer », Christensen (Wilfred), met, when he took up an appointment as special prosecutor, his amusing description in his book (in Danish) Jeg anklagede (Copenhagen, 1958) p. 9.

(17) For examples of detailed analyses and character interpretations of judges vide Green (Edward): « Judicial Attitudes in Sentencing » (London, 1961), pp. 71-72 and Lasswell (Harold D.): « Power and Personality » (New York, 1958), pp. 65-88.

(18) Gross has in his famous « Handbuch », that still contains a gold-mine of valuable observations and advice, enumerated the catalogue of attributes that an examining magistrate (= prosecutor) needs, among which he puts a high price on accuracy. Vide Gross (Hans): « Handbuch für Untersuchungsrichter als System der Kriminalistik, bearbeitet von Erwin Höpler, part I» (7th edit. Munich, 1922), pp. 35-44. This emphasis on accuracy has led the psychoanalytical Swiss criminologist Reiwald to characterize not only Hans Gross but also Sherloch Holmes as sadists with strongly compulsory neurotic traits, fixed in the anal phase of evolution. Vide Reiwald (Paul): « Society and its Criminals » (London, 1949), pp. 124-7.

(19) With this description may be compared the military profession that is also to a great extent characterized by the necessity to act energetically under partly unknown presumptions. Cf. Janowitz (Morris): « The Professional Soldier » (New York, 1961), p. 8.

(20) This idea could be fruitfully extended through psychoanalytical channels using the concepts of father image, super-ego and Id.

(21) Professor Remington has pointed to the important area of research that is found on the border between the influences of the legal and the professional norms upon the decision-making activity. Vide Remington (Frank J.): « Criminal Justice Research » in the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science (51) 1960, p. 16.

(22) The Swedish psychiatrist Kinberg has coined the striking phrase that the prosecutor's attitude towards the defendant is polarized so that he primarily perceives only those circumstances that point to the defendant's guilt. Vide Kinberg (Olof) « Socialpsykologiska faktories inflytante pabrottmalsprocessen in Tidskrift utgiven av Jurdidiska Föreningen i Finland, 1954 », p. 180.

(23) The Finnish professor of legal philophy Brusiin has pointed out that legal thinking is a function of the whole social situation in which it is exercised. Thus the prosecutor does not think primarily as a jurist but as a prosecutor. Vide Brusiin (Otto): « Das juristische Denken » (Helsinki, 1951), p. 138.

(24) Jerome Frank has characterized them as deeply amoral. Vide Frank: « Courts on Trial » (Princeton, 1949), pp. 83-85.

(25) Paul Reiwald has pronounced such thoughts in several places in his book mentioned in footnote 18 (pp. 34, 70, 246 and 270).

(26) This is an example of what Aubert has called « status - selective use of the criminal code », vide Aubert (Vilhelm): « Om straffens sosiale funksjon » (Oslo, 1954), p. 96.

(27) Cardozo has - like many authors - stressed the importance of unconscious processes of thought and the moments of uncertainty relating to the import of decision - making, cf. Cardozo (Benjamin): « The nature of the judicial process » (New Haven, 1961), pp. 181-3.

(28) Alexander and Staub have stated that there is no legal system able to value the crime as a fact without taking into consideration the person who committed it. Vide Alexander (Franz) and Staub (Hugo): « The Criminal, the Judge and the Public » (Glencoe, Ill. 1956), p. 16.

(29) On this decision - making, that is partly the result of a planned training, vide Aubert: « Rettssosiologi », pp. 76, 82 and 105-8.

(30) Cf. Eckhoff (Torstein) and Jacobsen (Knut Dahl): « Rationality and Responsibility in Administrative and Judicial Decision-making » (Copenhagen, 1960), pp. 39-40.

(31) Vide Carl: « M. Elwing's doctor's dissertation Tillräckligaskäl » (Lund, 1960), pp. 45-56.

(32) For a definition vide Katz (David): « Handbok i psykologi » (Stockholm, 1955), p. 78. « Gestalts » are wholenesses, the behavior of which is decided not by the behavior of their separate elements but by the inner nature of the wholeness (Max Wertheimer). In the other words, here the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts.

(33) Karl Llewellyn has expressed this in « The Common Law Tradition, Deciding Appeals » (Boston, 1960) through his theory of law as a craft that one can act with sufficient regularity with the help of a builtin compass without being able to formulate one's principles in writing for the direction of others.

(34) From this point of view the whole book is of interest. The formulas quoted are found in pp. 14 and 326.

(35) On the many demands that are made on the prosecutor in relation to different aspects of his work vide Iver (R. M. Mac): « The Social Significance of Professional Ethics, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January 1955 (297), p. 123. On the system of expectations, partly in the shape of pressures, that different « norm-senders » direct towards a decision-making official vide Goldschmidt, 1. c., p. 53.

(36) The Norwegian lawyer J.B. Hjorth has in his book Dömt med rette ? (Oslo, 1958) pointed to the important role fulfilled by those wellknown querulous complainants. Certainly they make a lot of trouble to every one who comes into contact with their case, but on the other hand through their unrelenting struggle the memory of their injustice is kept alive for the future. They « hunger and thirst for in justice » to use a biblical phrase. But it is evident that this viewpoint holds true only for those who have sustained a real injustice.

(37) It would be an interesting piece of research in sociometry to investigate the relations in this respect between a prosecutor's office and the detective division in a larger city.

(38) Vide Frazer (J. G.): « The Golden Bough », part VI; « The Scapegoat » (London, 1913), pp. 396-400.

(39) Vide Aubert: « Om straffens sosiale funksjon », p. 205 and Parsons (Talcott): « Essays in Sociological Theory » (Glencoe, Ill., 1954), p. 298, footnote 1.

(40) For a thorough-going evolution of the concepts aggression and contraaggression vide Dolland in John Dollard e.a.: « Frustration and Aggression » (New Haven, 1940), pp. 1, 7, 11 and 110, footnote 1.

(41) The Danish prosecutor Rung has spoken of the « hunting instinct » that easily seizes the new prosecutor and makes him a prisoner of the system. Vide Rung (Otto): « Fra min Klunketid » (Copenhagen, 1942), p. 217.

(42) Vide for the connection between aggression and other feelings Parsons: « Essays », pp. 300 ff.

(43) Thurman W. Arnold has strongly stressed the symbolic, magic and sacral character of the criminal trial in his « The Symbols of Government » (New Haven 1935) cf. pp. 130-31 and 158-98.

(44) Vide Bernhardsson (Carl-Olof): « Spionpolisen gar pa jakt » (Stockholm, 1952). p. 545. Two of the defendants were also sentenced to that punishment.

(45) Vide Goldschmidt, part I, pp. 43 ff. on the question what norms tend to dominate in a situation of norm-conflict.

(46) Vide Barnard (Chester I),: « The Functions of the Executive (5th ed., Cambridge, Mass., 1946), p. 264.

(47) Cf. the Roman legal maxim: Fiat justitia, pereat mundus.

(48) Cf. Merton (Robert K.): « Essays in Social Theory and Social Structure » (Glencoe, Ill., 1959), p. 315.

(49) Cf. Bratholm (Anders): « Benadningsinstitutet i kriminalrettslig belysning in Nordisk Tidsskrift for Krimmalvidenskab », 1959, pp. 677.

(50) Vide Jackson (Stanley): « The life and cases of Mr. Justice Humphreys » (London, 1957)., p. 55.