Criminal Law Commons^™

Sudden, Forced, And Unwanted Kisses In The #Metoo Era: Why A Kiss Is Not “Just A Kiss” Under Italian Sexual Violence Law, Rachel A. Van Cleave

Publications

#MeToo reports have revealed a significant number of forced kisses typically by men in positions of authority. Previous scholarship in the US has viewed such instances as to rare or too minor to be worthy of criminal sanctions. Indeed, there are no such reported criminal cases involving adults. However, in Italy, the Supreme Court of Cassazione has upheld sexual violence convictions for such forced kisses. This article analyzes these cases and investigates the types of considerations the Italian Supreme Court includes in its evaluation of these situations. This article also suggests specific aspects of US laws that could benefit from …

Domestic Violence And State Intervention In The American West And Australia, 1860-1930, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

This Article calls into question stereotypical assumptions about the presumed lack of state intervention in the family and the patriarchal violence of Anglo-American frontier societies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By analyzing previously unexamined cases of domestic assault and homicide in the American West and Australia, Professor Ramsey reveals a sustained (but largely ineffectual) effort to civilize men by punishing violence against women. Husbands in both the American West and Australia were routinely arrested or summoned to court for beating their wives in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Judges, police officers, journalists, and others expressed dismay …

The International War Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973 Of Bangladesh, Zakia Afrin

Publications

Bangladesh earned her independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a bloody war that continued for nine months. By December 16 of 1971, the day Bangladesh declared victory, an estimated 30 million people died and 200,000 women reported sexual violence by the Pakistani Army and their Bengali accomplices. Known as one of the worst genocide in history, the systematic killing of Bengalis included a chilling attempt to exterminate the intellectuals from within Bangladeshi society. A published report claims that by 19 April, 1975 individuals were arrested for war crimes and 752 were convicted. After the assassination of the country’s first Prime …

From Violence Against Women To Women's Violence In Haiti, Benedetta Faedi Duramy

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Much of the current scholarship, as well as international policy studies focusing on civil conflicts and armed violence, has primarily construed women as victims and men as perpetrators of violence. Although this prevalent interpretation certainly reflects conventional wisdom and tells part of a true war story, the remainder, which has been very much less publicized and addressed, also perceives women as participants in violence and men occasionally as victims. This Article joins the chorus of scholars that have only recently begun to highlight the flaws of this common belief and conversely, describe female participation in conflict and armed violence, often …

Provoking Change: Comparative Insights On Feminist Homicide Law Reform, Carolyn B. Ramsey

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The provocation defense, which mitigates murder to manslaughter for killings perpetrated in the heat of passion, is one of the most controversial doctrines in the criminal law because of its perceived gender bias; yet most American scholars and lawmakers have not recommended that it be abolished. This Article analyzes trendsetting feminist homicide law reforms, including the abolition of the provocation defense in three Australian jurisdictions, places these reforms in historical context, and assesses their applicability to the United States. It ultimately advocates reintroducing the concept of justified emotion, grounded in modern equality principles and social values, as a requirement for …

The Battle To Establish An Adversarial Trial System In Italy, William T. Pizzi, Mariangela Montagna

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No abstract provided.

In Defence Of The Right To Trial By Jury: A Solution To The Ailing Czech Justice System?, Susan Rutberg

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According to the pollsters, public confidence in the Czech justice system is very low. 65% of Czechs do not trust their judges. Certainly, there is a connection between this mistrust and the fact that approximately 40% of the CR's 2500 current judges have been on the bench since before 1989. To an outsider, it seems surprising that the post-communist governments did not make changes to a system that had been controlled by the Communist party. The institution of trial by jury may be one way to promote public confidence in the Czech justice system.

The purpose of this article is …

The Role Of United States Federal Courts In Extradition Matters: The Rule Of Non-Inquiry, Preventive Detention And Comparative Legal Analysis, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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This paper argues that applying the rule of non-inquiry to the issue of whether the requested person has been charged is analytically incorrect where the relevant treaty defines as extraditable persons who have been charged or convicted of certain offenses, thus requiring a judicial determination as to whether the person requested has been charged as part of the initial inquiry into extraditability. By contrast, the rule of non-inquiry is typically used to reject arguments of persons who are otherwise extraditable. This issue has not received much analysis perhaps because federal courts are reluctant to look beyond an arrest warrant issued …

An Offer You Can't Refuse? Punishment Without Trial In Italy And The United States: The Search For Truth And An Efficient Criminal Justice System, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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This Article compares the steps taken by Italy and the United States to reconcile the need for an efficient criminal justice system on the one hand, and the desire to achieve justice or discover the truth on the other. Plea bargaining in the United States has a significant history and has generated a substantial amount of literature critical of the device as violative of a criminal defendant's constitutional rights, particularly the right to be tried by a jury of one's peers. In addition, scholars have criticized the distortive effect of plea bargaining on the roles of the prosecutor, judge, and …

The O.J. Inquisition: An American Encounter With Continental Criminal Justice, Myron Moskovitz

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October 3, 1995 marked the end of the O.J. Simpson double murder trial, which lasted 474 days and was billed "the trial of the century. " After less than four hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Mr. Simpson of all charges. The following article is a dramatization of how a case similar to the Simpson trial might be handled by a civil-law European criminal justice system.

Utilizing an unusual format, Professor Myron Moskovitz examines and illustrates the differences between the United States and civil-law European criminal justice systems. The author uses a play script inspired by the events in the …

Book Review, Mark J. Loewenstein

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No abstract provided.