Global Perspectives on Criminal Procedure

This course provides an overview of comparative criminal procedure. Its goal is not only to study how other legal systems regulate the criminal process, but also to enable a deeper understanding of American criminal procedure by studying these foreign and international regulations. The study of comparative criminal procedure will help us understand why U.S., foreign and international jurisdictions have regulated procedural issues the way they have, will provide us alternative ways to regulate the same issues, and will enable us to have a more substantive discussion about what the advantages and disadvantages of the different regulations are. Topics that the course covers may include searches and seizures, the exclusionary rule and the fruit of the poisonous tree, electronic surveillance, undercover investigations and entrapment, police interrogations, bail, the right to a speedy trial, the charging decision and prosecutorial discretion, plea bargaining, discovery, the right to confrontation, the right to effective assistance of counsel and to self-representation, lay participation in the criminal process, publicity, the right to an impartial court, and sentencing procedures. There are no prerequisites for this seminar.Course Specific Learning Outcomes:

Deeper understanding of American criminal procedure and learning about non American criminal processes around the world