This Handbook presents innovative research that compares different criminal procedure systems by focusing on the mechanisms by which legal systems seek to avoid error, protect rights, ground their legitimacy, expand lay participation in the criminal process and develop alternatives to criminal trials, such as plea bargaining, as well as alternatives to the criminal process as a whole, such as intelligence operations. The criminal procedures examined in this book include those of the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, India, Latin America, Taiwan and Japan, among others.

Around the world, legal information managers, law librarians and other legal information specialists work in many settings: law schools, private law firms, courts, government, and public law libraries of various types. They are characterized by their expertise in working with legal information in its many forms, and by their work supporting legal professionals, scholars, or students training to become lawyers. In an ever-shrinking world and a time of unprecedented technological change, the work of legal information managers is challenging and exciting, calling on specialized knowledge and skills, regardless of where in the world they practice their profession. Their role within legal systems contributes substantially to the administration of justice and the rule of law. This International Handbook addresses the policy and strategic issues with which legal information managers and law librarians need to engage in the context of the diverse legal environments in which they work. It provides resources, analysis, and considered studies on an international basis for seasoned professionals, those about to enter the field, and anyone interested in the evolution of legal information in the twenty-first century.

Developments of the law in Japan and in Germany provide ample reason for an inquiry into “The Identity of Japanese and German Civil Law”. Japanese civil law has a long tradition of absorbing and digesting foreign influences, - in particular from Germany, France, England and the United States. The absorption of foreign influences occurred on various levels: at the legislative level, in particular during the drafting process of the Civil Code, at the judicial level and in the field of scholarship. The reception of legal theories was followed by a unique process that has been characterised as “theory reception” (Kitagawa). Irrespective of such foreign influences, we can discern a unique legal tradition in Japan - in other words, its own identity. At the same time, German private law is under the influence of legal harmonisation in the EU. While the predominant view in the 1980's was still that this development was confined to a restricted area - that of “consumer law” - recent developments demonstrate that European Union legislation now influences large parts of German civil law. What does this mean in terms of the identity of German civil law? And how does this development of a “Europeanization” of German civil law affect related legal systems, such as that of Japan? The present volume contains the proceedings of a conference held in Japan in 2006 to mark the occasion of the “Germany Year in Japan”. In their contributions, Japanese scholars discuss the various influences on Japanese law; German scholars enquire into the Europeanization of German private law; and finally, the identity of Japanese civil law is discussed from the perspectives of German civil law and of common law.

This book studies ideological divisions within Chinese legal academia and their relationship to arguments about the rule of law. The book describes argumentative strategies used by Chinese legal scholars to legitimize and subvert China's state-sanctioned ideology. It also examines Chinese efforts to invent new, alternative rule of law conceptions. In addition to this descriptive project, the book advances a more general argument about the rule of law phenomenon, insisting that many arguments about the rule of law are better understood in terms of their intended and actual effects rather than as analytic propositions or descriptive statements. To illustrate this argument, the book demonstrates that various paradoxical, contradictory and otherwise implausible arguments about the rule of law play an important role in Chinese debates about the rule of law. Paradoxical statements about the rule of law, in particular, can be useful for an ideological project.

The Genocide Convention explores the question of whether the law and genocide law in particular can prevent mass atrocities. The volume explains how genocide came to be accepted as a legal norm and analyzes the intent required for this categorization. The work also discusses individual suits against states for genocide and, finally, explores the utility of genocide as a legal concept.

Building on extensive fieldwork in China and Indonesia, Hurst offers a valuable comparison of legal systems in practice.

This Handbook provides a state-of-the-art survey of the study of the rule of law across law, the humanities, and social sciences, as well as insights into the practice of building the rule of law within and among states. Its 28 chapters are by many of the world’s leading scholars of the rule of law, as well as distinguished junior scholars, from a dozen countries and representing a number of academic disciplines. The chapters are ordered to progress, first, from theory to the practice of the rule of law and, second, from the rule of law within, to beyond, the state. They divide into three parts. The first part examines the concept, history, and value of the rule of law. This section considers the importance of political and intellectual history in shaping the concept over the centuries and takes novel philosophical approaches to the connection between the rule of law and other important ideals such as justice, equality, and civil disobedience. The second part transitions from theoretical studies to accounts of practical exercises in building the rule of law. The chapters consider the challenges of rule of law reform, including the use of local intermediaries facilitating interactions between international legal aid organizations and state governments, the challenges of legal translation across vastly different societies, the pathways of knowledge among the powerless about the protective potential of the rule of law, as well as the possible future for artificial intelligence systems in helping to reinforce rule-of-law principles. The third part examines the rule of law from a number of perspectives within particular supranational and national states, such as the European Union, China, Singapore, and South Africa, among others, and concludes by considering the prospects of the rule of law beyond the state, both within and among international institutions such as the United Nations, as well as non-territorial spaces like the world’s oceans. This Handbook is aimed at rule of law scholars across law, the humanities, and the social sciences, law and development practitioners, policymakers, and advanced students and researchers who seek a state-of-the-art overview of the history, theory, and practice of the rule of law.

From the author of Unlikely Allies and Indivisible comes the remarkable story of John Marshall who, as chief justice, statesman, and diplomat, played a pivotal role in the founding of the United States. No member of America's Founding Generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall, and no one did more to preserve the delicate unity of the fledgling United States. From the nation's founding in 1776 and for the next forty years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States—the longest-serving in history—he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts. As the leading Federalist in Virginia, he rivaled his cousin Thomas Jefferson in influence. As a diplomat and secretary of state, he defended American sovereignty against France and Britain, counseled President John Adams, and supervised the construction of the city of Washington. D.C. This is the astonishing true story of how a rough-cut frontiersman⁠—born in Virginia in 1755 and with little formal education—invented himself as one of the nation's preeminent lawyers and politicians who then reinvented the Constitution to forge a stronger nation. Without Precedent is the engrossing account of the life and times of this exceptional man, who with cunning, imagination, and grace shaped America's future as he held together the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the country itself.