Based on one of the largest observational studies of legal professional practice ever conducted, this book refutes the common conception of criminal cases as a fight between adversaries of equal strength, in which defense lawyers offset the intrusive potential of the State. The authors set their study against a background of the professionalization of criminal justice and the rapidly expanding state funding for criminal defense services. They examine the processes by which lawyers are educated and trained and make a detailed analysis of how cases are handled. The research reveals the...

Basing much of its analysis upon the first major empirical study of the French pre-trial process, this monograph breaks new ground in the field of comparative criminology. Moving away from idealized accounts of judicially supervised investigations, it provides a better understanding of the ways in which an inquisitorially rooted criminal process operates in practice and the factors that influence and constrain its development and functioning. The structure and operation of French criminal justice is set within a broad range of contexts-political, occupational and legal cultures-from the...

Beginning with an exploration of the awful miscarriages which prompted the establishment of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, the authors examine the role played by institutions and legal factors within the criminal process. Tracking the shift from due process rhetoric to the 'new penology' of efficient risk management of suspect populations, they assess the impact of recent reforms such as curtailment of the right to silence; the removal of the right to jury trial; and the appeal process itself.

This book considers how access to justice is affected by restrictions to legal aid budgets and increasingly prescriptive service guidelines. As common law jurisdictions, England and Wales and Australia, share similar ideals, policies and practices, but they differ in aspects of their legal and political culture, in the nature of the communities they serve and in their approaches to providing access to justice. These jurisdictions thus provide us with different perspectives on what constitutes justice and how we might seek to overcome the burgeoning crisis in unmet legal need. The book fills...