Plea bargaining avoids a lengthy and costly criminal trial and thus enables courts to deal with a large number of cases very quickly. While it has often been argued that modern criminal justice systems cannot afford to abolish plea bargaining, academics long have criticised it for undermining the rule of law by avoiding procedural safe-guards. This book analyses plea bargain in different families of law, and drawing on these findings ask to what extent this practice should be developed in international criminal law. The book analyses the relationship between values and practice in modern criminal justice systems through the example of plea bargaining comparing the development and practice of plea bargaining in different systems. The book sets out in-depth studies of consensual case dispositions in the UK, setting out how plea bargaining has developed and spread in England and Wales. It discusses in detail the problems that this practice poses for the rule of law as well as well as the principles of adversarial litigation. The book considers plea-bargaining in the USA as well as in the civil law German justice system. The book also draws on empirical research looking at the absence of informal settlements in the former GDR, offering a unique insight into criminal procedure in a socialist legal system that has been little studied. The book then goes on to look at international criminal law and examine the use of informal negotiations in the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the possible use in future cases of the International Criminal Court.

In recent years there has been a significant growth in interest of the so-called 'law in context' extending legal studies beyond black letter law. This book looks at the relationship between statute law and legal practice. It examines how law is applied in reality and more precisely how law is perceived by the general public in contrast to the legal profession. The authors look at a number of themes that are central to examining ways in which myths about law are formed, and how there is inevitably a constitutive power aspect to this myth making. At the same time they explore to what extent law itself creates and sustains myths. The book will be of general interest to a number of different disciplines such as legal theory, general law, criminology and sociology. -- .

This book explores whether the new capabilities made possible by precision-strike technologies are reshaping approaches to international intervention. Since the end of the Cold War, US technological superiority has led to a more proactive and, some would argue, high risk approach to international military intervention. New technologies including the capacity to mount precision military strikes from high-level bombing campaigns and, more recently, the selective targeting of individuals from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have facilitated air campaigns, supported by Special Forces, without the commitment of large numbers of troops on the ground. Such campaigns include, for example, NATO's high-level aerial bombardment of Milosevic's forces in Kosovo in 1999 and of Gaddafi's in Libya in 2011, and the US operation involving Special Forces against Osama Bin Laden. The development of UAVs and electronic data intercept technologies has further expanded the potential scope of interventions, for example against Islamic militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan. This volume examines three key and interrelated dimensions of these new precision-strike capabilities: (1) the strategic and foreign policy drivers and consequences; (2) the legal and moral implications of the new capabilities; and (3), the implications for decision-making at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. This book will be of much interest to students of war and technology, air power, international intervention, security studies and IR.

This book explores whether the new capabilities made possible by precision-strike technologies are reshaping approaches to international intervention. Since the end of the Cold War, US technological superiority has led to a more proactive and, some would argue, high risk approach to international military intervention. New technologies including the capacity to mount precision military strikes from high-level bombing campaigns - and more recently the selective targeting of individuals from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - have facilitated air campaigns, supported by Special Forces, without the commitment of large numbers of troops on the ground. Such campaigns include, for example, NATO's high-level aerial bombardment of Milosevic's forces in Kosovo in 1999 and of Gaddafi's in Libya in 2011. The development of UAVs and electronic data intercept technologies has further expanded the potential scope of interventions, for example against Islamic militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan. In addition, the US has undertaken targeted manned operations involving Special Forces against selected targets, for example Osama Bin Laden.This volume examines three key and interrelated dimensions of these new precision-strike capabilities: (1) the strategic and foreign policy drivers and consequences; (2) the legal and moral implications of the new capabilities; and (3), the implications for decision-making at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. This book will be of much interest to students of war and technology, air power, international intervention, security studies and IR.

Plea bargaining is one of the most important and most discussed issues in modern criminal procedure law. Based on historical and comparative legal research, the author has analysed the wide-spread use of plea bargaining in different criminal justice systems. The book sets out in-depth studies of consensual case dispositions in the UK, examining how plea bargaining has developed and spread in England and Wales. It also goes on to discusses in detail the problems that this practise poses for the rule of law by avoiding procedural safe-guards. The book draws on empirical research in its examination of the absence of informal settlements in the former GDR, offering a unique insight into criminal procedure in a socialist legal system that has been little studied. Drawing on her research findings, the author goes on to discuss the extent to which plea bargaining should be developed in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as the question of this practise is set to be one of the seminal debates in the development of international criminal procedures in the new International Criminal Court. Plea Bargaining in National and International Law will be of particular interest to academics and students of international criminal law, criminal procedures and comparative law.