The Metamorphosis of Criminal Justice

The focus of this book is the potentially radical and fundamental changes that are taking place within criminal justice in Britain and in France and the ways that these are driven by wider domestic, European, or international concerns. This metamorphosis away from established values and practices is eroding what were once regarded as core rights and freedoms in the name of efficiency, security, and justice to victims. Beginning with a comparative analysis of adversarial and inquisitorial procedural values and traditions, and an examination of broad trends in domestic and European criminal justice, the book then discusses how the roles of prosecution and defense have been reshaped in different ways in both jurisdictions—both in the text of the law and in their practices. The final part considers how systems within different procedural traditions adapt to address, or provide a remedy for, systemic flaws that produce wrongful convictions and, in particular, the role of the defense in these procedures. By adopting a comparative approach with France, the study explores the nature and reach of these trends, the ways that they challenge and disrupt criminal processes and values, and the contrasting responses that they provoke. It reveals how criminal justice traditions continue to be shaped in different ways by broader policy and political concerns; how different systems adapt, change, and distort when faced with (sometimes conflicting) pressures domestically and externally; and how different procedural values may serve to structure or limit reform, and so work to facilitate or resist change.