Offers a new understanding of jailhouse informants and the role they play in wrongful convictions Jailhouse informants-witnesses who testify in a criminal trial, often in exchange for some incentive-are particularly persuasive to jurors. A jailhouse informant usually claims to have heard the defendant confess to a crime while they were incarcerated together. Research shows that such testimony increases the likelihood of a guilty verdict. But it is also a leading contributor to wrongful convictions. Informants, after all, are generally criminals who are offering testimony in return for some key motivator, such as a reduced sentence. This book offers a broad overview of the history and legal and psychological issues surrounding the testimony of jailhouse informants. It provides groundbreaking psychological research to address how they are used, the number of convictions that have ultimately been overturned on other evidence, how such informants are perceived in the courtroom, and by what means jurors might be informed about the risks of this type of testimony. The volume provides a much-needed examination of legal remedies to the impact of jailhouse informants and suggests best practices in dealing with jailhouse informant testimony in court. There is a critical need to understand the influence of jailhouse informants and how their testimony can best be handled in court in the interests of justice. Jailhouse Informants is the first work of its kind that rises to the challenge of answering these difficult questions.

This text makes detailed analyses and comments on the MAI from the perspective of a Chinese scholar. The author believes that the "behind closed doors" process of MAI negotiations is unacceptable for developing countries, NGOs, and civil societies, and is inadvisable for any future negotiations on investment rules. The substantive contents of the MAI which include the definition of investor and investment, treatment of foreign investors and investments, treatment for investment protection, and the dispute settlement mechanism are of high standards that render them unreachable and unacceptable for developing countries. The nine chapters of the book include: an introduction; An analysis of the background of the MAI negotiations which briefly reviews the process and results of the negotiations and makes the author's comments on the negotiations; an analysis and evaluation of the main features of MAI provisions and the approaches adopted by the MAI; An exploration of the scope of application of the MAI through the analysis of the respective definition of investor and investment in the MAI, and points out that the purpose of broad definition is to broaden the MAI's scope of application; An analysis and comment on the MAI's general principles of treatment accorded to foreign investors and their investments, and points out that the MAI's provisions in this regard have negative impacts on developing countries; An introduction to the MAI's specific rules of treatment accorded to foreign investors and their investments in such new areas of international investment as performance requirements, investment incentives, key personnel, privatization, as well as monopoly, state enterprises and concessions. There is also: an analysis and commentary on the MAI's treatment provisions on investment protection, that is, the fair and equitable treatment and full and constant protection and security treatment as the general treatment, and the specific treatment with regard to expropriation and compensation, protection from strife and transfers; an introduction to and evaluation of the MAI's dispute settlement mechanism: the state-state procedure and the investor-state procedure, and; a conclusion.

Perry illuminates the Supreme Court's unique advantages in sustaining a noble public image by its stewardship of the revered Constitution, its constant embrace of the rule of law, the justices' life tenure, its symbols of impartiality and integrity, and a resolute determination to keep its distance from the media. She argues that the Court has bolstered these advantages to avoid traps that have marred Congressional and presidential images, and she demonstrates how the Court has escaped the worst of media coverage. In this detailed examination of the Court, its justices, decisions, facilities, and programs as well as its place in modern American culture, Perry illustrates that the Court has consciously endeavored to preserve its exalted standing. The Priestly Tribe provides an original and insightful analysis of this intriguing judicial institution for students and scholars of the Court and the general public.

The essentials of mergers and acquisitions (M & A) practice can best be examined from a buyer's perspective. In a corporate transaction, it is the buyer who typically faces the more substantial risks. In many instances, legal problems exist of which the buyer must be aware before deciding to purchase the target company. The book features a collection of reports by experienced young practitioners from seventeen different jurisdictions, along with a general report for a working session organised by the Corporate Acquisitions and Joint Ventures and Tax Law Commissions of l' Association international des jeunes avocats (AIJA) for the AIJA Annual Congress in Lisbon in August 2002. Each national report follows the same structure as the general report, but from a local perspective.

Commentary on the Italian Code of Civil Procedure is a unique and comprehensive guide to understanding the structure and functioning of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure. The book provides a reliable translation to the provisions for the implementation of the 840 articles of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure. An indispensible resource for practitioners in the field, this book provides a description of civil procedure and the translated text of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, with an explanation of the legal terms, provisions for the implementation of the Code, and valuable commentary. The commentary and translations included in this book were prepared by Italian attorneys with extensive experience working with the Italian Code of Civil Procedure and American Civil Procedure.

En este libro se analizan de manera breve las etapas del Procedimiento Criminal Ingles. De igual forma se hace especial referencia a ciertos topicos del Procedimiento Penal Mexicano. A juicio del autor, el estudio de dichos instrumentos juridicos nos sugiere la urgente necesidad de tomar todo lo bueno del Procedimiento criminal Ingles, para incorporarlos en las legislaciones de estados donde predominan Sistemas Procesal Penal Tradicional Latino, a fin de que en el futuro se conviertan en modelos de justicia Criminal similar al Ingles. El autor de buena fe invita a todos los paises emergentes y en vias de desarrollo con sistemas legales de tradicion Latina, soliciten apoyo Profesional a gobiernos de primer nivel, con especial referencia al Ingles, con el objeto de que las futuras generaciones cuenten con modelos legales mas apropiados en materia de justicia criminal, donde impere siempre la verdad y la justicia sobre todas las cosa. El autor aprovecha la ocasion para desear lo mejor de los exitos a todas aquellas naciones valientes y decididas que muy pronto emprendan la iniciativa de seguir sabiamente los consejos vertidos en la presente obra.

This book presents a study of interpreter-mediated interaction in New York City small claims courts, drawing on audio-recorded arbitration hearings and ethnographic fieldwork. Focusing on the language use of speakers of Haitian Creole, Polish, Russian, or Spanish, the study explores how these litigants make use of their limited proficiency in English, in addition to communicating with the help of professional court interpreters. Drawing on research on courtroom interaction, legal interpreting, and conversational codeswitching, the study explores how the ability of immigrant litigants to participate in these hearings is impacted by institutional language practices and underlying language ideologies, as well as by the approaches of individual arbitrators and interpreters who vary in their willingness to accommodate to litigants and share the burden of communication with them. Litigants are shown to codeswitch between the languages in interactionally meaningful ways that facilitate communication, but such bilingual practices are found to be in conflict with court policies that habitually discourage the use of English and require litigants to act as monolinguals, using only one language throughout the entire proceedings. Moreover, the standard distribution of interpreting modes in the courtroom is shown to disadvantage litigants who rely on the interpreter, as consecutive interpreting causes their narrative testimony to be less coherent and more prone to interruptions, while simultaneous interpreting often leads to incomplete translation of legal arguments or of their opponent's testimony. Consequently, the study raises questions about the relationship between linguistic diversity and inequality, arguing that the legal system inherently privileges speakers of English.

The law relating to recourse is always changing, but the present period is notable for the number of countries whose law has recently undergone, is now undergoing, or is about to undergo extensive reform. This makes the comparison of differing systems particularly difficult. This book is the second volume in the series "Civil Procedure in Europe." It gives a comparative overview of the systems of recourse against civil judgments actually in operation in 14 countries of the European Union. The reports were written against the background of a document originally circulated in July 1995, but each of them remains the original work of its individual author. The contributions are written by national expects distinguished in the field of civil procedural law. The main reports are written in English, French, German and in one case Spanish, and are followed by summaries in the remaining languages. Extensive bibliographies have been included, to enable the reader to find material for further study. The national reports systematically address the following: a description of the right of appeal in each country; the nature and scope of the appeal against first and second instance judgments; enforceability of Judgment subject to recourse; and default judgments. Recourse against judgments covers the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

A reconsideration of the writ of habeas corpus casts new light on a range of current issues Habeas corpus, the storied Great Writ of Liberty, is a judicial order that requires government officials to produce a prisoner in court, persuade an independent judge of the correctness of their claimed factual and legal justifications for the individual's imprisonment, or else release the captive. Frequently the officials resist being called to account. Much of the history of the rule of law, including the history being made today, has emerged from the resulting clashes. This book, heavily based on primary sources from the colonial and early national periods and significant original research in the New Hampshire State Archives, enriches our understanding of the past and draws lessons for the present. Using dozens of previously unknown examples, Professor Freedman shows how the writ of habeas corpus has been just one part of an intricate machinery for securing freedom under law, and explores the lessons this history holds for some of today's most pressing problems including terrorism, the Guantanamo Bay detentions, immigration, Brexit, and domestic violence. Exploring landmark cases of the past - like that of John Peter Zenger - from new angles and expanding the definition of habeas corpus from a formal one to a functional one, Making Habeas Work brings to light the stories of many people previously overlooked (like the free black woman Zipporah, defendant in "the case of the headless baby") because their cases did not bear the label "habeas corpus." The resulting insights lead to forward-thinking recommendations for strengthening the rule of law to insure that it endures into the future.

The United Nations system's foundational principle of sovereign equality reflects persistent disagreement within its membership as to what constitutes a legitimate and just internal public order. While the boundaries of the system's pluralism have narrowed progressively in the course of the United Nations era, accommodation of diversity in modes of internal political organization remains a durable theme of the international order. This accommodation of diversity underlies the international system's commitment to preserve states' territorial integrity and political independence, often at the expense of other values. For those who impute to the international legal order an inherent purpose to establish a universal justice that transcends the boundaries of territorial communities, the legal prerogatives associated with state sovereignty appear as impediments to the global advance of legality. That view, however, neglects the danger of allowing powerful states to invoke universal principles to rationalize unilateral (and often self-serving) impositions upon weak states. Though frequently counterintuitive, limitations on cross-border exercises of power are supported by substantial moral and political considerations, and are properly overridden only in a limited range of cases. Sovereign Equality and Moral Disagreement accomplishes two tasks. One is to construct a unifying account of the manifestations of the principle of sovereign equality in international legal norms governing a range of subject areas, from foundational matters such as the recognition of states and governments to controversial questions such as legal authority for extraterritorial criminal prosecution and armed intervention. The other is to defend the principle as a morally sound response to persistent and profound disagreement within the international community as to the requirements of legitimate and just internal public order.

High profile miscarriages of justice have become the focus of much recent writing on criminal justice. Such literature ignores an important paradox: when justice is contested and uncertain, how can we speak meaningfully of miscarriage of justice? This book addresses this question, and finds an answer to it in the relationship between the legal construction of criminal justice, most notably that of trials and appeals, and the reporting of these in the media.

Should judges in United States courts be permitted to cite foreign laws in their rulings? In this book Jeremy Waldron explores some ideas in jurisprudence and legal theory that could underlie the Supreme Court's occasional recourse to foreign law, especially in constitutional cases. He argues that every society is governed not only by its own laws but partly also by laws common to all mankind (ius gentium). But he takes the unique step of arguing that this common law is not natural law but a grounded consensus among all nations. The idea of such a consensus will become increasingly important in jurisprudence and public affairs as the world becomes more globalized.

Criminal Law: A Comparative Approach presents a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the substantive criminal law of two major jurisdictions: the United States and Germany. Presupposing no familiarity with either U.S. or German criminal law, the book will provide criminal law scholars and students with a rich comparative understanding of criminal law's foundations and central doctrines. All foreign-language sources have been translated into English; cases and materials are accompanied by heavily cross-referenced introductions and notes that place them within the framework of each country's criminal law system and highlight issues ripe for comparative analysis. Divided into three parts, the book covers foundational issues - such as constitutional limits on the criminal law - before tackling the major features of the general part of the criminal law and a selection of offences in the special part. Throughout, readers are exposed to alternative approaches to familiar problems in criminal law, and as a result will have a chance to see a given country's criminal law doctrine, on specific issues and in general, from the critical distance of comparative analysis.

In order to be effective, federal ethics law must address sources of systematic corruption rather than simply address motives that individual government employees might have to betray the public trust (such as personal financial holdings or family relationships). Getting the GovernmentAmerica Deserves articulates a general approach to combating systemic corruption as well as some specific proposals for doing so. Federal ethics law is relatively unknown in legal academia and elsewhere outside of Washington, D.C., but it is binding on over one million federal employees. Lobbyists, federal contractors, lawyers and others who interact with the federal government are also deeply interested in federal ethics law and represent a surprisingly large market for a little-studied area of the law.
Getting the Government America Deserves analyzes government ethics law from the perspective of an academic critic and that of a lawyer who was the chief White House ethics lawyer for two and a half years. Richard Painter argues that the existing ethics regime is in need of substantial reform since federal ethics laws fail to curtail conduct that undermines the integrity of government, such as political activity by federal employees and their interaction with lobbyists and interest groups. He also contends that in some other areas, such as personal financial conflicts of interest, there is too much complexity in regulatory and reporting requirements, and rules need to be simplified. Painter's solution includes strengthening the enforcement of ethics rules, reforming the lobbying industry, and changing a system of campaign finance that impedes meaningful government ethics reform.

Reprint of a title from the Judicial Administration Series published by the National Conference of Judicial Councils. Originally published: New York: Published by the Law Center of New York University for the National Conference of Judicial Councils, 1952. xvi, 534 pp. Written near the end of Millar's career, the present study is a brilliant summary of his life's work. It discusses antecedents of the Anglo-American system, the evolution of procedure and American and English civil procedure in the nineteenth century. Other chapters discuss the development of specific areas, such as introduction of the cause, mode of trial and voluntary dismissal.
"In a society which so often confuses quantity with quality - or at least tends to regard quantity as a necessary ingredient of quality - it is not surprising that American legal texts labeled "great" have generally been multi-volumed ones. While the number of volumes certainly does not detract from the worth of a Williston on Contracts or a Wigmore on Evidence, their sheer size has made them more easily recognizable, in our society, as classics. On the other hand, the single volume American law books receiving the label of greatness would make a sparse list indeed. To this elite list must now be added Professor Millar's Civil Procedure of the Trial Court in Historical Perspective." --Philip P. Kurland, Harvard Law Review 66 (1952-1953) 1542
Robert Wyness Millar 1876-1959], a professor at Northwestern University Law School, was a leading authority on civil procedure and its history. Miller 1937 Millar was the author of The Old Regime and the New in Civil Procedure (1937) and, with co-author Arthur Engelmann, A History of Continental Civil Procedure (1927).

The law of restitution has developed apace, taking its doctrinal starting point for the most part from the principle of unjust enrichment. This principle, however, has proved itself to be theoretically unstable, particularly in respect of the proper relationship of restitution with other bodies of law. This book is an account of the law of restitution which provides coherence in its relationships with other areas of private law, reflects a consistent theoretical underpinning, and offers an organisation of the law which is not solely dependent on theory but which also reflects a contextual coherence. One important consequence of this reformulation is that the subject matter which falls properly within the ambit of the law of restitution is considerably less than is currently supposed. Although directed to the substantive law of New Zealand, the book is an important contribution to the developing theoretical organisation of the law and extends far beyond that jurisdiction.

An analysis of the divergent legal systems in England, France, Germany and Rome showing the relationship of the courts to the community, the legal structure and political organizations. The work examines the evolution of medieval French and German courts from the Roman canonist system. This study also explores the role of the local courts in England and examines in detail the workings and influence of a typical manor court, Redgrave, in Suffolk, England, (which was owned by Sir Nicholas Bacon, the father of Sir Francis Bacon) for the period up to 1711. Extensive notes, indexed. Scholars interested in the roots of the modern political structures in Europe will find this work of supreme benefit.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in South Africa after the collapse of apartheid, was the bold creation of a people committed to the task of rebuilding of a nation and establishing a society founded upon justice, equality and respect for the rule of law. As part of its historic, cathartic mission, the TRC held a special hearing, calling to account the lawyers -- judges, academics and members of the bar -- who had been crucial participants in the apartheid legal order. This book is an account of those hearings, and an attempt to evaluate, in the light of theories of adjudication, the historical role of the judiciary and bar in the apartheid years.

Written by a well-known commentator on the South African legal system who became, by chance, the first witness to give testimony at these hearings, this book reveals, often in the words of those who testified, how the judges failed in their duty to uphold the rule of law. For the most part, the lawyers of apartheid deserted its victims. The few notable exceptions both illustrate the potential for lawyers to have done more and laid the basis for the respect the rule of law still enjoys in South Africa despite apartheid.

Yet, as the author shows, many continue to commit a more serious 'crime'. Failing to confront the past, and in many cases refusing even to attend TRC hearings, the lawyers who could have helped to resist the worst excesses of apartheid remain accomplices to its evil deeds.

This book offers us the spectacle of an entire legal system on trial. The echoes from this process are captured here in a way which will appeal to all readers -- lawyers and non-lawyers alike -- interested in the relationshipbetween law and justice, as it is exposed during a period of transition to democracy.

This book explores the transnational legal infrastructure for dispute resolution in transnational securities transactions. It discusses the role of law and dispute resolution in securities transactions, the types of disputes arising from them, and the institutional and legal aspects of dispute resolution, both generally and regarding aggregate litigation. It illustrates different dispute resolution systems and aggregate litigation methods, and examines the legal issues of dispute resolution arising from transnational securities transactions. In addition, the book proposes two systems of dispute resolution for transnational securities transactions depending on the type of dispute: collective redress through arbitration and a network of alternative dispute resolution systems.

As the ultimate arbiter in the global trade regime, the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a body whose workings should be known to business people and their counsel everywhere. Here is a book - reviewed for accuracy by the WTO but written independently - that provides an uncomplicated but thorough explanation of the system, its purpose, its rules, and the role it plays in the management of the international economy. Peter Gallagher, a former trade negotiator and a specialist in the Uruguay Round agreements, answers such questions as: what sort of disputes does the WTO deal with?; can business or citizens use the WTO dispute system?; is it possible to get a temporary injunction to stop some action?; how much does it cost a to bring a case?; how far can you keep on appealing a decision?; what processes does a Panel follow?; what does the Appellate Body review?; what process does the Appellate Body follow?; how does intervention by other parties affect a dispute? As a handy guide to "bringing a case" before the WTO, or responding to a case already in progress, this easy-to-use book should prove an ideal starting point for lawyers, business people, or government officials confronted with a disputable trade issue.