Law Commons^™

Faulty Adversarial Performance By Criminal Defenders In The Crown Court, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Who is the more able advocate, the lawyer in the United States or the barrister in England and Wales? Answering that question is extremely difficult because of a multitude of differences in the procedural regimes in which each works and in the scope of each's responsibility. Yet, one facet stands out, like a full moon in a dark sky: The comparative number of defenders who on appeal have been accused of having provided inappropriate representation in the process leading to conviction . . . Part 1 discusses the procedural hurdles that make challenging the trial barrister's conduct more difficult than …

Economic Incentives In Representing Publicly-Funded Criminal Defendants In England's Crown Court, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The flux now engulfing the way in which the defenders of indigent criminal defendants are compensated in England's Crown Court provides a sober lesson for U.S. lawyers. Once, U.S. lawyers, who themselves are appointed to represent indigent defendants, could have cited English practice to support a hefty increase in the meager compensation they receive in many jurisdictions. For in balancing the tension between encouraging effective representation, but at bearable social cost, U.S. jurisdictions stress the latter, all but ignoring the former. The English approach, by contrast, has paid generously, at least in serious cases, thereby implicitly recognizing that defenders could …

Ensuring Able Representation For Publicly-Funded Criminal Defendants: Lessons From England, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While there are skilled private defense lawyers who enthusiastically represent indigent criminal defendants, too often defense lawyers whose income depends upon appointments provide deplorable representation. The problem is well known and pervasive. In addition to the blizzard of claims on appeal of ineffective representation, defenders' efforts have been savaged by judges and by fellow lawyers. These nagging problems persist: to induce private lawyers to represent their clients effectively by eliciting the defendant's story and managing their relationship in a way that at least does not displease the defendant; investigating his and the prosecution's positions; pressing the prosecution for discovery, for …

Representing Indigents In Serious Criminal Cases In England's Crown Court: The Advocates' Performance And Incentives, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While indigent defendants charged with serious criminal offenses can be represented by lawyers in the United States and by barristers and solicitors in England and Wales. Gauging the quality of that help is an important but elusive inquiry. This article has two purposes: to map how the indigent criminal defendant charged with very serious offenses is represented in England's Crown Court, and to examine whether economic incentives can induce the defendant's representatives to perform as expected.

While barristers profess to be skilled advocates, and while many lawyers have likewise extolled the barrister's advocacy, testing the point is extremely difficult. Apart …

Comparatively Speaking: The Honor Of The East And The Passion Of The West, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this Article, I will attempt a comparative review by examining in the United States the crime that has the most affinity with the crime of honor in the Arab World: the killing of women in the heat of passion for sexual or intimate reasons, which is seen in the United States as one of many instances in which the more generic crime of passion can occur. For the purposes of this Article, I will use the term "crime of passion" as it is so specifically defined. The reason for the exercise is to locate precisely the meaning of the …

A Re-Evaluation Of The Privilege Against Adverse Spousal Testimony In The Light Of Its Purpose, Paul F. Rothstein

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The recent development in American federal criminal evidence law to be examined and compared with English law in this paper, is a new evolutionary turn taken by the husband-wife privilege against adverse spousal testimony, manifest in the Supreme Court decision of Wyatt v. United States. The House of Lords, in Rumping v. D.P.P., just decided, suggests that the English spousal privileges might be susceptible of similar development.