The long-debated issue of the prosecution's adherence to the highest court's rulings in assessing the criminality of an act is addressed in the study as a question of the specific distribution of roles in criminal proceedings. This shifts the focus away from older perspectives that concentrated more on the nature of the prosecution in favor of a functional analysis. Special attention was given to elucidating the fundamental understandings that are decisive for the various opinions represented in the literature. The study also includes valuable comparative legal insights, particularly regarding procedural law in Switzerland.