Rebooting Justice PDF Download

Author: Benjamin H. Barton
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594039348
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
America is a nation founded on justice and the rule of law. But our laws are too complex, and legal advice too expensive, for poor and even middle-class Americans to get help and vindicate their rights. Criminal defendants facing jail time may receive an appointed lawyer who is juggling hundreds of cases and immediately urges them to plead guilty. Civil litigants are even worse off; usually, they get no help at all navigating the maze of technical procedures and rules. The same is true of those seeking legal advice, like planning a will or negotiating an employment contract. Rebooting Justice presents a novel response to longstanding problems. The answer is to use technology and procedural innovation to simplify and change the process itself. In the civil and criminal courts where ordinary Americans appear the most, we should streamline complex procedures and assume that parties will not have a lawyer, rather than the other way around. We need a cheaper, simpler, faster justice system to control costs. We cannot untie the Gordian knot by adding more strands of rope; we need to cut it, to simplify it.

Author: Steven P. Croley
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479811971
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Prosecutes the civil litigation system and proposes practical reforms to increase access to the courts and reduce costs. Civil litigation has come under fire in recent years. Some critics portray a system of dishonest lawyers and undeserving litigants who prevail too often, and are awarded too much money. Others criticize the civil justice system for being out of reach for many who have suffered real injury. But contrary to these perspectives and popular belief, the civil justice system in the United States is not out of control. In Civil Justice Reconsidered, Steven Croley demonstrates that civil litigation is, for the most part, socially beneficial. An effective civil litigation system is accessible to parties who have suffered legal wrongs, and it is reliable in the sense that those with stronger claims tend to prevail over those with weaker claims. However, while most of the system’s failures are overstated, they are not wholly off base; civil litigation often imposes excessive costs that, among other unfortunate consequences, impede access to the courts, and Croley offers ways to reform civil litigation in the interest of justice for potential plaintiffs and defendants, and for the rule of law itself. A better litigation system matters only because of what is at stake for real people, and Civil Justice Reconsidered speaks to the thought leaders, litigation reformers, members of the bar and bench, and policymakers who can answer the call for reforming civil litigation in the United States.

Author: Alec Karakatsanis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781620979143
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A "searing, searching, and eloquent" (Martha Minow, Harvard Law School) investigation into the role of the legal profession in perpetuating mass incarceration--now in an accessible paperback format from the award-winning civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis doesn't think people who have gone to law school, passed the bar, and sworn to uphold the Constitution should be complicit in the mass caging of human beings--an everyday brutality inflicted disproportionately on the bodies and minds of poor people and people of color, for which the legal system has never offered sufficient justification. Usual Cruelty offers a radical reconsideration of the American "injustice system" by someone who is actively--and wildly successfully--challenging it. Hailed by luminaries from James Forman Jr. and Vanita Gupta to U.S. Circuit Judge Bernice Donald, and MacArthur Award-winning poet and attorney Reginald Dwayne Betts, Usual Cruelty offers a condemnation of the whole deplorable enterprise, starting with profound questions about the specific things our system chooses to criminalize (marijuana plants, low-level gambling, petty theft) versus those we don't (tobacco plants, high-level gambling by bankers, massive wage theft by employers). It calls out a bail system that charges people money to go free despite the lack of any evidence this will make them more likely to show up in court or make anybody safer. And it explores the everyday brutality of our courts, prisons, and jails, and the ways in which the legal profession has allowed itself to become desensitized to the everyday pain these institutions inflict on our most vulnerable populations. Now in an accessible paperback format, Usual Cruelty will cement Karakatsanis's reputation as one of the most inspiring civil rights lawyers of our time.

Author: Maya Steinitz
Publisher:
ISBN: 1107162858
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
An International Court of Civil Justice would give victims of multinationals a day in court while offering corporate defendants a cheaper, fairer litigation alternative.

Author: Amy E. Lerman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022613797X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The numbers are staggering: One-third of America’s adult population has passed through the criminal justice system and now has a criminal record. Many more were never convicted, but are nonetheless subject to surveillance by the state. Never before has the American government maintained so vast a network of institutions dedicated solely to the control and confinement of its citizens. A provocative assessment of the contemporary carceral state for American democracy, Arresting Citizenship argues that the broad reach of the criminal justice system has fundamentally recast the relation between citizen and state, resulting in a sizable—and growing—group of second-class citizens. From police stops to court cases and incarceration, at each stage of the criminal justice system individuals belonging to this disempowered group come to experience a state-within-a-state that reflects few of the country’s core democratic values. Through scores of interviews, along with analyses of survey data, Amy E. Lerman and Vesla M. Weaver show how this contact with police, courts, and prisons decreases faith in the capacity of American political institutions to respond to citizens’ concerns and diminishes the sense of full and equal citizenship—even for those who have not been found guilty of any crime. The effects of this increasingly frequent contact with the criminal justice system are wide-ranging—and pernicious—and Lerman and Weaver go on to offer concrete proposals for reforms to reincorporate this large group of citizens as active participants in American civic and political life.

Author: William J. Stuntz
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674051750
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Rule of law has vanished in America’s criminal justice system. Prosecutors decide whom to punish; most accused never face a jury; policing is inconsistent; plea bargaining is rampant; and draconian sentencing fills prisons with mostly minority defendants. A leading criminal law scholar looks to history for the roots of these problems—and solutions.

Author: Vincent Chiao
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190273941
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Criminal law as public law 1: context -- Criminal law as public law 2: structure -- Criminal law as public law 3: content -- Mass incarceration and the theory of punishment -- Criminal law in the age of the administrative state -- Formalism and pragmatism in criminal procedure -- Responsibility without resentment

Author: Linda Carter
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 0857939580
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
'International Criminal Procedure, edited by two insiders to international criminal proceedings, Professor Linda Carter and Professor Fausto Pocar, a judge at the ICTY and a former President of this Tribunal, is a coherently organized, well-researched, very informative and not the least elegantly-written contribution to a young and rapidly developing legal sub-discipline. The book provides its reader with a highly accessible and up-to date introduction into key elements of international criminal procedure as well as with critical commentary and rich inspiration for improvements of current practices.' – Claus Kreß LL.M. (Cantab.), University of Cologne, Germany and Institute for International Peace and Security Law 'This book addresses compelling issues that have come before international criminal tribunals. They include the self-representation of accused persons, plea bargaining and victim participation. It usefully approaches all of the issues and problems from a comparative law perspective. This excellent and accessible work is essential reading for practitioners, faculty and students of international criminal law.' – Richard Goldstone, Retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and for Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda The emergence of international criminal courts, beginning with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and including the International Criminal Court, has also brought an evolving international criminal procedure. In this book, the authors examine selected issues that reflect a blending of, or choice between, civil law and common law models of procedure. The issues include background on civil law and common law legal systems; plea bargaining; witness proofing; written and oral evidence; self-representation and the use of assigned, standby, and amicus counsel; the role of victims; and the right to appeal. International Criminal Procedure will appeal to academics, students, researchers, lawyers and judges working in the field of international criminal law.

Author: Darrell L. Ross
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317523997
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
Understanding case law in high-liability areas and performing the job within a legal framework places a criminal justice agency in the best position to defend against a lawsuit. This handbook addresses the problems confronting criminal justice practitioners and their agencies due to the ever-increasing number of civil liability lawsuits. It introduces the reader to civil liability generally and the federal law specifically, while indicating the steps that can be taken to minimize the risk of litigation. Civil Liability in Criminal Justice is one of very few texts on the subject that combines applicable case law and related liability research, a valuable feature for current and future policy makers and managers. Ross also provides an overview of current case law in high-liability areas, enhancing student knowledge and practitioner job performance.

Author: Chad Flanders
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783484152
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
There is no more vivid example of a state’s power over its citizens than the criminal law. By criminalizing various behaviours, the state sets boundaries on what we can and cannot do. And the criminal law is in many ways unique in the harshness of its sanctions. But traditional criminal law theory has for too long focussed on the questions, “what is a crime?” and “what is the justification of punishment?” The significance of the criminal law extends beyond these questions; indeed, critical philosophical questions underlie all aspects of the criminal justice system. The criminal law engages us not just as offenders or potential offenders, but also as victims, suspects, judges and jurors, prosecutors and defenders—and as citizens. The authors in this volume go beyond traditional questions to challenge our conventional understandings of the criminal law. In doing so, they draw from a number of disciplines including philosophy, history, and social science.