The regular shortening and easement of a criminal trial by a plea of guilty of the defendant
induced by a bargained sentence discount implies seductive chances and tricky risks as measured
by the rule of law. For this it is drawn from the comprehensive experiences in the Anglo-Saxon
criminal process where a plea of guilty has become the rule and no more the exception for the
handling of criminal trials. A special focus is laid on the (irreversible?) momentum which has
come along with the establishment of this practice in Australia the UK and the USA. These
findings are scrutinized with regard to the increasing practice of agreements in the German
criminal trial.
