Global Perspectives on Criminal Procedure: Reading Group
Spring term, Block H
M 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Visiting Professor Maximo Langer
1 classroom credit LAW-37835A
This reading group will cover selected topics on comparative criminal procedure. Its goal is not only to discuss how other legal systems regulate the criminal process, but also to enable a deeper understanding of American criminal procedure by studying these foreign regulations. The study of comparative criminal procedure will help us understand why U.S. and foreign 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 reading group may cover 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.
This reading group is by-permission. Interested students should submit a resume, transcript, and one paragraph explaining why they are interested in the reading group to Professor Langer (langer@law.ucla.edu) by November 2, 2009.
Meeting dates for this reading group are:
January 25
February 8 & 15
March 1 & 29
April 12