Criminal Procedure A Comparative Approach [Connected eBook with Study Center]

by Thaman, Stephen C.

• ISBN13: 9798892070782
• ISBN10: 8892070789
• eBook ISBN(s): 9798892070805
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-09-15
• Publisher: Aspen Publishing
• More Book Details

Summary

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on Casebook Connect, including academic lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities. Access also includes practice questions, an outline tool, and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes.

Criminal Procedure: A Comparative Approach, First Edition is designed with the premise that in order to understand one’s own system of law, including its positive and negative aspects, one must compare it with how other systems approach the same issues in democratic countries. The book compares the seminal jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court and cases from state and lower federal courts with the approaches taken in democratic countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Courts. This comparison is contextualized in relation to the burning issues of criminal procedure in a world where the democratic rule-of-law state is no longer something which can be taken for granted. Professors abroad, or those who teach specialized comparative classes, can decide how much U.S. law to include, and can augment the non-U.S. case selection by drawing from a large selection of other cases and statutory texts included in an online appendix.  

The book will prompt discussions of reforms that aim to: (1) ensure that all segments of the population are treated equally; (2) prevent the conviction of the innocent based on insufficient or fabricated evidence; and (3) ensure that more cases are subjected to adversarial testing, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and proportionate sentencing worthy of a democratic society.

Benefits for instructors and students:

• Cases and other excerpted materials: A wealth of interesting and well-edited cases, both U.S. and international, providing material for comparative analysis and stimulation for classroom discussion.
• U.S. Law Notes: Supplements to the excerpted seminal cases, revealing nuances in the prevailing approach and divergences among states which accord more protection than the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Discussion: Provocative questions and information, designed to encourage students and instructors to identify the similarities and differences between U.S. and foreign law, and to discuss which approaches may be the preferred ones.
• Online Appendix: A wealth of high court opinions and statutory law, all in English or English translation, for those students or instructors who wish to delve deeper into a particular area, who are enrolled in classes that are not heavily focused on U.S. law, or who need additional resources for writing papers.
• Glossary of Terms and Concepts Translated from French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish: Important information (especially helpful for non-U.S. students) to help clear up potential terminological confusion.
• Further Reading (U.S. and Comparative): Chapter-end suggestions for books and articles (each list focusing exclusively on U.S. or comparative law), related to the issues discussed in the chapter.

Table of Contents

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Contents 
Preface

CHAPTER 1
The Historical and Comparative Foundations of Crime
Prevention and Criminal Procedure 

CHAPTER 2
The Preliminary Investigation: Models, Division
of Tasks, and Powers 

CHAPTER 3
Arrest and Temporary Detention: Limitations and Deprivations
of Liberty in the Investigation and Prevention of Crime 

CHAPTER 4
Theories of the Right to Privacy and Conventional Search Law 

CHAPTER 5
Privacy and the Use of Secret Investigative Techniques in
Investigating Crime and Threats to National Security 

CHAPTER 6
The Right to Silence and the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination 

CHAPTER 7
The Use of Undercover Agents and Informants and Their Impact on the
Right to Privacy, the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination, and Due Process 

CHAPTER 8
The Admissibility of Illegally Gathered Evidence: Exclusionary
Rules and Evidentiary Use Prohibitions 

CHAPTER 9
The Regulation of Eyewitness Identification 

CHAPTER 10
Pretrial Detention, Other Coercive Measures, and the
Right to a Speedy Trial

CHAPTER 11
Preparation for Trial: Review of the Charging Decision, Discovery,
and the Postcharge Ability of Counsel to Prepare a Defense 

CHAPTER 12
The Taking of Evidence at Trial: Orality, Immediacy, and the Right
to Confrontation 

CHAPTER 13
Presumption of Innocence, Burden of Proof, and Guaranteeing the
Independence and Impartiality of the Trial Court and the Jury 

CHAPTER 14
The Roles of Lay and Professional Judges in Evaluating the Evidence,
Deciding Facts, Guilt, and Punishment, and How the Rationality of
Their Decisions Is Justified 

CHAPTER 15
The Finality of Criminal Judgments: Appeal, Cassation, the
Reopening of Final Judgments, and the Effect of Double Jeopardy 

CHAPTER 16
How Much Evidence Suffices to Overcome the Presumption of
Innocence and Prove Guilt Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: A Closer
Look at the Difficult Cases That Are Prone to Miscarriages of Justice 

CHAPTER 17
Plea and Sentence Bargaining and the Avoidance of the Full
Criminal Trial 

CHAPTER 18
Possible Pathways to Reform 

Glossary
Bibliography 
Appendix: Excerpted Cases, Codes, and Other Norms
Index