Criminal cases are commonly seen as a fight between adversaries of equal strength: the intrusive power of the State versus skilled defence lawyers advocating their clients' cause. The reality, according to this major new study, is rather different. The provision of defence counsel is often rudimentary and unsatisfactory. Based upon one of the largest studies of legal professional practice ever undertaken, involving nearly fifty solicitors' firms, this book offers a critical examination of the practices and organisation of defence lawyers in Britain from the moment of initial contact with clients through to the routine preparation and representation of defendants in both Magistrates' and Crown Courts, the authors show how defence lawyers discharge their obligations to clients. For the first time, this study reveals the role of paralegals and unqualified staff in providing defence assistance, and highlights how their inexperience and assumption of their client's guilt can critically undermine defendants' rights. The deficiencies highlighted by their research leads the authors to question the effectiveness of recent liberal and managerial reforms, with their excessive reliance on market-led considerations. The authors propose a cultural transformation in criminal defence work, a reassertion of the defendants' rights within an adversarial system, and offer constructive suggestions for improving defence services. Extensively researched and documented, this study is a major contribution to current debates about the criminal justice system, and as such will be required reading for all lawyers, scholars and professionals interested in the administration of justice.

International organizations are increasingly operating across borders and engaging in legal transactions in virtually all jurisdictions. This makes, familiarity with the applicable law and practice imperative for both international organizations and those who engage in legal relations with them. Furthermore, the issue of whether, how, and to what extent domestic courts take into account decisions of foreign and international courts and tribunals in their own decision-making has become increasingly important in recent years. This book provides a comprehensive empirical study of this transnational judicial dialogue, focusing on the law and practice of domestic jurisdictions concerning the legal personality, privileges, and immunities of international organizations. It presents a selection of detailed country-by-country studies, examining the manner of judicial dialogue across domestic jurisdictions, and between national and international courts. The approach taken in this book intersects with three highly topical areas of international legal scholarship: the rapidly evolving law of international institutions; the burgeoning research into the role of domestic courts in the international legal system; and the recent rise of empirically-oriented legal scholarship. Utilizing OUP's International Law in Domestic Courts database, the book presents analysis of little-known cases which have real international significance, illustrating the impact and extent of transnational judicial dialogue in the international legal system. The book provides important perspectives on the evolution and status of the law of immunity of international organizations, and contributes to the understanding of relationships between national courts, and between national and international courts.

This edited volume is a timely and insightful contribution to the growing discourses on public law in Asia. Surveying many important jurisdictions in Asia including mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, the book addresses recent developments and experiences in the field of public interest litigation. The book offers a comparative perspective on public law, asking crucial questions about the role of the state and how private citizens around Asia have increasingly used the forms, procedures and substance of public law to advance public and political aims.

In addition to addressing specific jurisdictions in Asia, the book includes a helpful and introduction that highlights regional trends in Asia. In the jurisdictions profiled, transnational public interest litigation trends have commingled with local dynamics. This volume sheds light on how that commingling has produced both legal developments that cut across Asian jurisdictions as well as developments that are unique to each of the jurisdictions studied.

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.tandfebooks.com as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project.

E-commerce offers immense challenges to traditional dispute resolution methods, as it entails parties often located in different parts of the world making contracts with each other at the click of a mouse. The use of traditional litigation for disputes arising in this forum is often inconvenient, impractical, time-consuming and expensive due to the low value of the transactions and the physical distance between the parties. Thus modern legal systems face a crucial choice: either to adopt traditional dispute resolution methods that have served the legal systems well for hundreds of years or to find new methods which are better suited to a world not anchored in territorial borders.

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), originally an off-shoot of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), takes advantage of the speed and convenience of the Internet, becoming the best, and often the only option for enhancing consumer redress and strengthening their trust in e-commerce. This book provides an in-depth account of the potential of ODR for European consumers, offering a comprehensive and up to date analysis of the development of ODR. It considers the current expansion of ODR and evaluates the challenges posed in its growth. The book proposes the creation of legal standards to close the gap between the potential of ODR services and their actual use, arguing that ODR, if it is to realise its full potential in the resolution of e-commerce disputes and in the enforcement of consumer rights, must be grounded firmly on a European regulatory model.

- Provides new Law students with a step-by-step guide to answering a key form of assessment. - Accessibly written so will suit both domestic and international students studying Law for the first time. - Includes extensive pedagogical assistance with tasks to reinforce learning at each step in the process.

This collection interrogates relationships between court architecture and social justice, from consultation and design to the impact of material (and immaterial) forms on court users, through the lenses of architecture, law, socio-legal studies, criminology, anthropology, and a former senior federal judge. International multidisciplinary collaborations and single-author contributions traverse a range of methodological approaches to present new insights into the relationship between architecture, design, and justice. These include praxis, photography, reflections on process and decolonising practice, postcolonial, feminist, and poststructural analysis, and theory from critical legal scholarship, political science, criminology, literature, sociology, and architecture. While the opening contributions reflect on establishing design principles and architectural methodologies for ethical consultation and collaboration with communities historically marginalised and exploited by law, the central chapters explore the textures and affects of built forms and the spaces between; examining the disjuncture between design intention and use; and investigating the impact of architecture and the design of space. The collection finishes with contemplations of the very real significance of material presence or absence in courtroom spaces and what this might mean for justice. Courthouse Architecture, Design and Social Justice provides tools for those engaged in creating, and reflecting on, ethical design and building use, and deepens the dialogue across disciplinary boundaries towards further collaborative work in the field. It also exists as a new resource for research and teaching, facilitating undergraduate critical thought about the ways in which design enhances and restricts access to justice.

Transitional Justice, Judicial Accountability and the Rule of Law addresses the importance of judicial accountability in transitional justice processes. Despite a general consensus that the judiciary plays an important role in contemporary governance, accountability for the judicial role in formerly authoritarian societies remains largely elided and under-researched. Hakeem O. Yusuf argues that the purview of transitional justice mechanisms should, as a matter of policy, be extended to scrutiny of the judicial role in the past. Through a critical comparative approach that cuts through the transitioning experiences of post-authoritarian and post-conflict polities in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa, the book focuses specifically on Nigeria. It demonstrates that public accountability of the judiciary through the mechanism of a truth-seeking process is a necessary component in securing comprehensive accountability for the judicial role in the past. Transitional Justice, Judicial Accountability and the Rule of Law further shows that an across-the-board transformation of state institutions - an important aspiration of transitional processes - is virtually impossible without incorporating the third branch of government, the judiciary, into the accountability process.

Drawing on work from inside some of America's largest and toughest prisons, this book documents an alternative model of "restorative corrections" utilizing the lived experience of successful inmates, fast disrupting traditional models of correctional programming. While research documents a strong desire among those serving time in prison to redeem themselves, inmates often confront a profound lack of opportunity for achieving redemption. In a system that has become obsessively and dysfunctionally punitive, often fewer than 10% of prisoners receive any programming. Incarcerated citizens emerge from prisons in the United States to reoffend at profoundly high rates, with the majority of released prisoners ending up back in prison within five years. In this book, the authors describe a transformative agenda for incentivizing and rewarding good behavior inside prisons, rapidly proving to be a disruptive alternative to mainstream corrections and offering hope for a positive future. The authors' expertise on the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry allows them to delve into the principles behind inmate-led religious services and other prosocial programs-to show how those incarcerated may come to consider their existence as meaningful despite their criminal past and current incarceration. Religious practice is shown to facilitate the kind of transformational "identity work" that leads to desistance that involves a change in worldview and self-concept, and which may lead a prisoner to see and interpret reality in a fundamentally different way. With participation in religion protected by the U.S. Constitution, these model programs are helping prison administrators weather financial challenges while also helping make prisons less punitive, more transparent, and emotionally restorative. This book is essential reading for scholars of corrections, offender reentry, community corrections, and religion and crime, as well as professionals and volunteers involved in correctional counseling and prison ministry.

Contains significant analysis of specific, novel topics such as good faith, AI, forward-looking analysis of contractual and statutory adjudication and investment arbitration. Includes the unique opinions of leading figures in the field on a range of the most topical issues relevant to the professional audience. Updated analysis of topics such as dispute resolution clauses, expert evidence, DABs and the emergency arbitrator, investment arbitration. Analysis of problems as they arise in a multi-jurisdictional/international environment. User-friendly tables and index to navigate and consult the text easily and quickly.

Breaking Law, a judge's inside guide to everything you need to know about your legal rights is back: bigger, better and bang up to date. Written by Stephen Gold, a civil and family judge, legal broadcaster and journalist, this self-help best-seller has been significantly expanded with over 25 new chapters added to make this a 77 chapter bumper second edition covering even more of the legal problems we may all encounter at some time in our lives. So whoever you are - litigant in person, consumer or business owner and you can even be a professional lawyer or legal trainee to derive benefit from the book - you will find entertaining and enormously practical advice, written in straightforward language, direct from the judge's pen to help you succeed in your dispute - or at least lose well. Been overcharged at a supermarket? Overlooked in a relative's will? Sold duff goods? Sued for repossession by mortgage lender or landlord? Threatened by being left penniless after a divorce? You can find help here. But now in this second edition, you will also be armed to challenge that parking ticket, cope with a speeding or drink-drive prosecution, get your money back on a Covid cancelled holiday, resist excessive service charges from your landlord and much, much more. And Breaking Law Iooks like being the first book available to cover the new no-fault divorce laws that are due to come into force in April 2022. But Stephen does much more than explain rights. He takes you through how to behave in court (including how to cross-examine) whether it's a face-to-face or remote hearing. And the book is full of templates: letters to help you win without a court case; documents you can use if the dispute goes to court; and documents such as the change your name deed, the cohabitation agreement, the pre-nuptial agreement, the anti-gazumping agreement, the no-sex agreement and the longest will in the world from which you can chose who inherits and who doesn't. Throughout, Stephen's advice is illuminated by tales of how his own disputes with a myriad of businesses have gone. No disputes with the twins Ron and Reg Kray, though. He was their lawyer and there's a fascinating account of his professional relationship with them and his discovery of what became of Ron's brain. If you do think you need a lawyer, Stephen provides plenty of ideas of how to get legal advice before handing over any money along with how to source professional help in and out of courts and tribunals for those who cannot afford legal fees (and who can?!). From the moment you get out of bed, you could suddenly find yourself needing this book. So don't wait till the worst happens, get a copy and keep it handy like thousands of others have done over the last five years.

This book discusses court-oriented legal reforms across Asia with a focus on the creation of 'new courts' over the last 20 years. Contributors discuss how to judge new courts and examine whether the many new courts introduced over this period in Asia have succeeded or failed. The 'new courts' under scrutiny are mainly specialist courts, including those established to hear cases involving intellectual property disputes, bankruptcy petitions, commercial contracts, public law adjudication, personal law issues and industrial disputes.

The justification of the trend to 'judicialize' disputes has seen the invocation of Western-style rule of law as necessary for the development of the market economy, democratization, good governance and the upholding of human rights. This book also includes critics of court building who allege that it serves a Western agenda rather than serving local interests, and that the emphasis on judicialization marginalises alternative local and traditional modes of dispute resolution.

Adopting an explicitly comparative perspective, and contrasting the experiences of important Asian states - China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia - this book considers critical questions including:

• Why has the 'new-court model' been adopted, and why do international development agencies and nation-states tend to favour it?
• What difficulties have the new courts encountered?
• How have the new courts performed?
• What are the broader implications of the trend towards the adoption of judicial solutions to economic, social and political problems?

Written by world authorities on court development in Asia, this book will not only be of interest to legal scholars and practitioners, but also to development specialists, economists and political scientists.

This book examines the American television legal series from its development as a genre in the 1940s to the present day. Villez demonstrates how the genre has been a rich source of legal information and understanding for Americans. These series have both informed and put myths in place about the legal system in the US. Villez also contrasts the US to France, which has seen a similar interest in legal series during this period. However, French television representations of justice are strikingly different, as is the role of fiction in offering viewers the possibility of acquiring significant understandings of their legal system. The book will be an important addition to the study of popular culture and law and will interest legal scholars, sociologists, and media scholars.

This book provides unique insights into modern collective judicial decision-making. Courts all over the world sit in panels of several judges, yet the processes by which these judges produce the court's decision differ markedly. Judges from some of the world's most notable judicial bodies, in both the civilian and the common law tradition and from supra-/international courts, share their experiences and reflect on the challenges to which their collective endeavour gives rise. They address matters such as the question of panel constitution, the operation of rapporteur systems, pre-and post-hearing conferences, the hearing procedure itself, the nature of the interaction between the judicial panel and parties' advocates, the extent to which a unitary judgment of the court or at least a single majority judgment is required or deemed desirable, and how it is ultimately arrived at through different voting mechanisms. They allow the reader a unique inside view into the functioning of modern judicial bodies. The judges' chapters are supplemented by a series of comparative analyses and reflections on the lessons to be learnt from them. Collective Judging in Comparative Perspective thus also provides an ideal starting point for thinking about future court design.

Justice Mahomed was a philosopher of law whose insights and analysis brought about refinements in the law that enlarged the scope of freedom and dignity during apartheid. He spent his life in the service of law to establish justice, contributing to laying the foundation for human rights. As a fearless advocate he challenged immoral and repressive legislation and executive action, developing the common law, especially in the areas of administrative and public law. As a judge, he was at the forefront of a radical and visionary constitutional transformation.

Mahomed’s vision of a human rights culture pre-dated our transition to democracy. We are constantly reminded of his deep love for and understanding of the law, his unmatched oratory, his passion and his unwavering commitment to human rights.

The book comprises four sections:

• Section one consists of a commentary, preceded by a foreword by President Cyril Ramaphosa;
• Section two consists of perspectives of Mahomed by colleagues, friends and family;
• Section three is a selection of his speeches that deal with a range of issues from philosophy to a Bill of Rights;
• Section four identifies some of his illuminating judgments.

In this fresh and provocative critique of judicial power, Matthew Franck argues for a Supreme Court that is newly mindful of constitutionalism's basis in the sovereign will of the people and of the distinctly limited scope of judicial authority that is permitted by that constitutional sovereignty. Neither activism nor restraint, but a lively sense of the fundamental constraints that deprive the Court of any legitimate choice between those two options, is at the heart of Franck's model of appropriate judicial modesty.

Franck challenges three propositions central to current debates over the Supreme Court's role in American life: that the Court has the final word in interpreting the Constitution above competing views from other government branches; that it may legitimately initiate actions to correct political or social dysfunctions left uncorrected by those branches; and that constitutional decisions may be grounded in natural law or a "higher law" located beyond the text of the Constitution.

Franck claims that these erroneous propositions have allowed the Court's power to grow well beyond its constitutional mandate. He persuasively argues that a more accurate and responsible view of judicial power can be revived by reexamining the Framers' thought, the writings of liberal philosophers (especially Hobbes, Locke, and Blackstone), and the early opinions of the Supreme Court.

His reasoned critique provides illuminating new perspectives on the jurisprudence of John Marshall; on the origins and practices of "judicial statesmanship" (presumed to have begun with Marshall); on McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)-which was not, Franck argues, a ruling in pursuit of a nationalist political agenda but conformed to a modest vision of the judicial power; and on the mangled roots of substantive due process. In addition, he reviews recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings to demonstrate the large influence of historical misconceptions on our understanding of the proper scope of judicial power in a constitutional democracy.

Whether you are engaged in the study of law, are considering studying law at university, are a business professional or want to find out more about the law in general, Slapper and Kelly's English Law offers a clear, lively and reliable point of entry to the law in England and Wales.

Presented in an easy-to-read style, it provides readers with an accurate explanation of how the English legal system currently works and the content of English law in all its key areas of operation, including criminal law, contract law and the law of negligence.

An invaluable introduction, English Law is an excellent resource for students of the English legal system and English law, as well as for professionals and general readers.

Applying innovative interpretive strategies drawn from cultural studies, this book considers the perennial question of law and politics: what role do the founding fathers play in legitimizing contemporary judicial review? Susan Burgess uses narrative analysis, popular culture, parody, and queer theory to better understand and to reconstitute the traditional relationship between fatherhood and judicial review. Unlike traditional, top-down public law analyses that focus on elite decision making by courts, legislatures, or executives, this volume explores the representation of law and legitimacy in various sites of popular culture. To this end, soap operas, romance novels, tabloid newspapers, reality television, and coming out narratives provide alternative ways to understand the relationship between paternal power and law from the bottom up. In this manner, constitutional discourse can begin to be transformed from a dreary parsing of scholarly and juristic argot into a vibrant discussion with points of access and understanding for all.

This book extensively analyses obligations connected to property rights, or 'real obligations', in a comparative perspective through a study of Belgian, French, Dutch and Scots law. Examples of real obligations are the periodical payment obligation of a long lease holder, the maintenance of the property subject to a servitude and the financial contributions by apartment owners. A real obligation differs in several aspects from a personal obligation. A real obligation is for instance so closely connected to a property right that the obligation transfers automatically to the transferee of the property right. After defining real obligations and the exclusion of several related legal mechanisms in Part I, the regime of real obligations is analysed in Part II. The liability of both the transferor and transferee for real obligations, which are for many property rights underregulated, for instance, are analysed in detail. Those findings are applied to the specific property rights in Part III, so that particular problems for a specific property right are also analysed and, where possible, solved. For instance the role of party autonomy in the creation of a long lease right is studied. Also the different obligations which can be connected to a servitude are delineated. Part IV deals with legal mechanisms most of which have recently been introduced, allowing to connect obligations to a piece of property, outside the traditional framework of property rights, such as the Dutch 'qualitative obligation' and the French obligation reelle environnementale. The book ends with a discussion of the possibility and desirability of the (broader) introduction of such real obligations, which could entail the introduction of new property rights sui generis.

Whether you are engaged in the study of law, are considering studying law at university, are a business professional or want to find out more about the law in general, Slapper and Kelly's English Law offers a clear, lively and reliable point of entry to the law in England and Wales.

Presented in an easy-to-read style, it provides readers with an accurate explanation of how the English legal system currently works and the content of English law in all its key areas of operation, including criminal law, contract law and the law of negligence.

An invaluable introduction, English Law is an excellent resource for students of the English legal system and English law, as well as for professionals and general readers.

Presents Legal Skills in their real world context, preparing students for both assessment and for real life legal practice. Accessible, informal and easy to read, engaging students and providing a clear way in to the subject Supported by online learning resources via the very popular LawBore blog

What impact do federal courts have on the administrative agencies of the federal government? How do agencies react to the decisions of federal courts? This book answers these questions by examining the responses of federal agencies to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, revealing what happens inside agencies after courts rule against them. Robert J. Hume draws upon dozens of interviews with current and former administrators, taking readers behind the scenes of these organizations to reveal their internal procedures, their attitudes about courts, and their surprising capacity to be influenced by a judge 's choice of words. This fascinating study will be of interest to students and scholars of politics as well as those seeking great understanding of the intricacies of the US political system.

This edited volume brings together leading scholars on the death penalty within international, regional and municipal law. It considers the intrinsic elements of both the promotion and demise of the punishment around the world, and provides analysis which contributes to the evolving abolitionist discourse. The contributors consider the current developments within the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the African Commission and the Commonwealth Caribbean, and engage with the emergence of regional norms promoting collective restriction and renunciation of the punishment. They investigate perspectives and questions for retentionist countries, focusing on the United States, China, Korea and Taiwan, and reveal the iniquities of contemporary capital judicial systems. Emphasis is placed on the issues of transparency of municipal jurisdictions, the jurisprudence on the 'death row phenomenon' and the changing nature of public opinion. The volume surveys and critiques the arguments used to scrutinize the death penalty to then offer a detailed analysis of possible replacement sanctions.

This book takes a novel approach to the question of how law shapes the contemporary lives of indigenous peoples in North America. Working through a series of legal cases thematically linked by a concern with how indigenous difference - indigeneity - is produced in the courtroom, this book asks the following questions:

• How does legal discourse and practice allow us to think the contemporary political context of Native North America?
• What can a critical engagement with law reveal about the lives of indigenous peoples in this key historical moment?

Through an examination of contemporary property disputes, the use of indigenous justice in mainstream courts, and the use of genetic technologies to prove or disprove indigenous identities, Indigeneity in the Courtroom provides insight into how law, culture, and the production of difference operate in the early twenty-first century.

This is an innovative and provocative book by one of America's leading writers on private and public international law. Practitioners as well as students and scholars will be fascinated by the author's distillation of a lifetime of experience as a lawyer, arbitrator, government official, and teacher in presenting recent developments in litigation of controversies across national boundaries.