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Three Principles Of Democratic Criminal Justice, Joshua Kleinfeld
Three Principles Of Democratic Criminal Justice, Joshua Kleinfeld
Northwestern University Law Review
This Essay links criminal theory to democratic political theory, arguing that the view of criminal law and procedure known as “reconstructivism” shares a common root with certain culturally oriented forms of democratic theory. The common root is the valorization of a community’s ethical life and the belief that law and government should reflect the ethical life of the community living under that law and government. This Essay then specifies three principles that are entailed by the union of democracy and reconstructivism and that should therefore characterize a democracy’s approach to criminal justice: the “moral culture principle of criminalization,” the “principle …
Restoring Democratic Moral Judgment Within Bureaucratic Criminal Justice, Stephanos Bibas
Restoring Democratic Moral Judgment Within Bureaucratic Criminal Justice, Stephanos Bibas
Northwestern University Law Review
While America's criminal justice system is deeply rooted in the ideal of a popular morality play, it has long since drifted into becoming a bureaucratic plea bargaining machine. We cannot (and would not want to) return to the Colonial Era. Even so, there is much more we can do to reclaim our heritage and incorporate popular participation within our lawyer-run system. That requires pushing back against the relentless pressures toward efficiency and maximizing quantity, to ensure that criminal justice treats each criminal with justice, as a human and not just a number. The criminal justice system must narrow its ambitions …