Electronic Criminal Case File in the Epoch of Digitalization

The article is devoted to the creation of an electronic dossier of a defence lawyer. It shows the significance of the dossier in the law practice, its content, the disadvantages of the «dossier in paper» and the advantages of the «electronic dossier». The article analyzes the «Methodological recommendations for conducting legal proceedings by attorneys», usage of the investigator’s automated workplace and the judge’s automated workplace. It presents some related foreign experience. The various capabilities of digital dossier and its potential are described.

The Client

This Chapter attempts to give some guidance to those dealing with a client in a criminal matter. It is intended to be of assistance to those who are embarking upon, or are relatively new to practice, as the matters in this particular Chapter will be familiar to a practitioner with some experience. It is not geared particularly to either barristers or solicitors, but takes certain situations where the tasks to be performed and the instructions to be sought are common to both branches of the profession. For ease of presentation it is presented from the point of view of the defence lawyer, but the points made are easily transferable to those who are representing the prosecution.

The adversarial defence lawyer: Myths, disclosure and efficiency—A contemporary analysis of the role in the era of the Criminal Procedure Rules

This article contends that piecemeal changes to the adversarial process since the dawn of the new millennium have transformed the CJS. The advent of (near) compulsory disclosure means the defendant has to reveal many elements of his defence. This dilutes the adversarial battle and leaves a process which is managerialist in nature. The Early Guilty Plea system is a mechanism to increase the efficiency by stemming the amount of cases reaching the trial stage. This has an impact on the defence lawyer’s role and renders him conflicted between advancing the best interest of the client against other pre-trial obligations. This small empirical study suggests that classic adversarial lawyers are seen as a relic of a bygone era. The modern criminal justice system prioritises speed and efficiency. If a case reaches court, the defendant is treated as an ‘informational resource’ of the court reminiscent of his position in the 17th century.

The Political Reception of Michel Houellebecq’s Submission

In 2015, French writer Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission, which depicts a future France with a Muslim president, was repeatedly cited in political discourse about Islam, French identity, and terrorism. In the year of the novel’s publication, several Islamist terrorist attacks targeted France, and Houellebecq was often named in the debate on multiculturalism, immigration and the French secularist principle of laïcité. The reception of the novel is analysed in this article, focusing on ideological argumentation and political debate. Two opposite camps can be identified in this reception structure. Interestingly, the arguments of these camps are analogous to the arguments of the prosecutor and defence lawyer in the 1857 trial of Gustave Flaubert concerning his novel Madame Bovary. One and a half centuries after that trial, questions about the reader’s moral capacity and the author’s responsibility remain at the heart of the debate. While some liberal critics praise the ambiguities of the novel, trusting the reader’s ethical faculties, other critics condemn the novel and accuse the writer of expressing dubious values. As for the ideological homes of these critics, the liberal group represents left-wing, right-wing, and uncertain ideologies, whereas the gatekeeping group largely consists of left-leaning agents. The division into two reception groups and their respective discursive patterns and practices are analysed using the Bovary trial as a basis for comparison. It is concluded that in the anxious political climate of 2015 when terror, migration, and Islam were attracting considerable attention and when the populist right was on the rise, Houellebecq’s novel functioned as a political vehicle in government-sympathetic opinion making and as a practical tool for critics who positioned themselves as safeguarding generous migration and integration policies.

Proceduralism, Political Embeddedness and Death Penalty Lawyers in China

Research suggests that cause lawyers are a diverse group. Death penalty lawyers with attachment to political institutions and a strong commitment to procedurals tend to have a unique path to professional identification, participation in the legal process and acquiring the ability to affect case outcomes. Borrowing from Hilbink's typologies and Liu and Halliday's analytical framework, this study examines in detail the practices of proceduralist and progressive elite lawyers. It uses a high-profile capital case, the Nian Bin case, as a case study to analyse the motivation and strategies of the lead defence lawyer in the context of progressive proceduralist cause lawyers. Relevant theoretical and policy implications as well as suggestions for future studies are discussed.