Course | Columbia Law School

This seminar will address a variety of hotly debated issues in criminal procedure, including the regulation of undercover policing, plea bargaining, the sentencing role of criminal juries, the entrapment defense, and the Supreme Court's new jurisprudence on the Confrontation Clause. The seminar will frequently bring comparative perspectives to bear on these issues and will explore the relationship between them, including the ways in which sentencing reform affects plea bargaining and in which plea bargaining and Confrontation Clause requirements affect the choice of undercover tactics and the selection among alternative investigative mechanisms. The seminar will contrast European and American approaches to these topics and will compare the jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court with that of the European Court of Human Rights. Many of the issues covered in this seminar raise questions about the methods and limits of transnational cooperation in criminal investigations. A comparative approach to the topics we will cover will make it possible to examine the ways in which different national approaches affect the choice of mechanisms by which law enforcement agencies collaborate across national borders. Students will be expected to write a paper, which may also qualify for minor writing credit. Major credit is also available with permission of the instructor.