Law Commons^™

A Witness To Justice, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

In the 1988 film The Accused, a young woman named Sarah Tobias is gang raped on a pinball machine by three men while a crowded bar watches. The rapists cut a deal with the prosecutor. Sarah's outrage at the deal convinces the assistant district attorney to prosecute members of the crowd that cheered on and encouraged the rape. This film shows how Sarah Tobias, a woman with little means and less experience, intuits that according to the law rape victims are incredible witnesses to their own victimization. The film goes on to critique what the right kind of witness would …

A Comparative Examination Of The Purpose Of The Criminal Justice System, James Diehm

James W. Diehm

A recent Gallup poll found that only 20% of Americans have a substantial amount of confidence in our criminal justice system, a 14% decline from only four years ago. Since the legitimacy of our criminal justice system depends upon the public’s confidence in that system, this is matter of great concern. As a result of my acquaintance with both our system and the inquisitorial system used in Europe and elsewhere, I am aware of the specific areas that lead the American public to distrust our process and the way in which those areas are dealt with in the inquisitorial system. …

Studying Wrongful Convictions: Learning From Social Science, Richard A. Leo, Jon B. Gould

Richard A. Leo

There has been an explosion of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions in the last decade, reflecting a growing concern about the problem of actual innocence in the criminal justice system. Yet criminal law and procedure scholars have engaged in relatively little dialogue or collaboration on this topic with criminologists. In this article, we use the empirical study of wrongful convictions to illustrate what criminological approaches—or, more broadly, social science methods—can teach legal scholars. After briefly examining the history of wrongful conviction scholarship, we discuss the limits of the (primarily) narrative methodology of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions. We argue that …

Failures To Punish: Command Responsibility In Domestic And International Law, Amy J. Sepinwall

Amy J. Sepinwall

Military spokespeople and upper echelon commanders routinely maintain that wartime atrocities are the acts of a few "bad apples." Yet, while disclaimers of responsibility from higher-ups in the chain of command often beg credulity, the law provides safe harbor for those holding command positions since it is frequently powerless to ensnare anyone but the atrocity's immediate perpetrators. This Article spans international and domestic law, and it addresses one of the doctrinal constraints on holding commanders criminally liable: the doctrine of command responsibility as it applies where commanders fail adequately to investigate or punish atrocities of their troops.

As a theoretical …

Step Out Of The Car: License, Registration, And Dna Please, Brian Gallini

Brian Gallini

From Philly To Fayetteville: Reflections On Teaching Criminal Law In The First Year, Brian Gallini

Brian Gallini

The Dramas Of Criminal Law: Chapter [?] Of The Symbols Of Governance: Thurman Arnold And Post-Realist Legal Theory, Mark Fenster

Mark Fenster

This essay is a chapter of a book-in-progress on the legal and cultural theory of the legal realist Thurman Arnold, who was prominent as a Yale law professor from 1932 until he joined the Justice Department as head of its antitrust division in 1938. Arnold's work focused on the symbolic role of law in governance, both as a means by which the state gains legitimacy and as a means by which those who oppose a political majority attempt to frame their opposition. As public law that defines and enforces substantive prohibitions, criminal law and procedure allowed Arnold to develop some …

Civil Law Consequences Of Corruption And Bribery In France, Michala Meiselles Ms, Beatrice Jaluzot Dr

Michala Meiselles Ms

A range of colourful expressions is used to describe corruption in the French language, including such expressions as “wine pots” (pots-de-vin) or “under the table” (dessous de table), which both give a hint as to the depth and age of this phenomenon. In everyday parlance, corruption is defined as the use of reprehensible means to induce somebody to act against their duty or conscience. This definition is relatively wide and reveals that corruption is a protean phenomenon. Since corruption is constantly evolving, it requires a protean set of legal measures to fight efficiently against it. Reality shows that corruption is …