Law Commons^™

Miranda In Taiwan: Why It Failed And Why We Should Care, Shih-Chun Steven Chien

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In 1997, the Taiwanese legislature amended the Code of Criminal Procedure to incorporate the core of the American Miranda rule into the legal system. The Miranda rule requires police officers and prosecutors to notify criminal suspects subject to custodial interrogation of their right to remain silent and their right to retain legal counsel. In subsequent amendments, the legislature enacted a series of laws to further reform interrogation practices in the same vein.

What happened next is a study in unintended consequences and the interdependence of law and culture. Using ethnographic methods and data sources collected over the past four years …

The Duty To Charge In Police Use Of Excessive Force Cases, Rebecca Roiphe

Cleveland State Law Review

Responding to the problems of mass incarceration, racial disparities in justice, and wrongful convictions, scholars have focused on prosecutorial overcharging. They have, however, neglected to address undercharging—the failure to charge in entire classes of cases. Undercharging can similarly undermine the efficacy and legitimacy of the criminal justice system. While few have focused on this question in the domestic criminal law context, international law scholars have long recognized the social and structural cost for nascent democratic states when they fail to charge those responsible for the prior regime’s human rights abuses. This sort of impunity threatens the rule of law and …

The Reign Of The Queen Of Hearts: The Declining Significance Of The Presumption Of Innocence - A Brief Commentary, Leroy Pernell

Cleveland State Law Review

The cherished concept of the presumption of innocence and the need for adjudication before sentence has eroded over the years. Taking its place is a growing belief that the safety of society depends on massive deprivation of liberty and property without predetermination of guilt. The notion of innocence has now become an inconvenient technicality as opposed to a valued principle. This article will examine the origin, history, and decline of the presumption of innocence in three contexts: (1) pretrial detention, (2) property forfeiture, and (3) trial stage -courtroom settings and jury instructions.