Dr Paul Behrens publishes "Contemporary Challenges to Criminal Justice"

On 28 December 2023, "Contemporary Challenges to Criminal Justice: Liber Amicorum for Ralph Henham" was published by Hart Publishing / Bloomsbury. The study was edited by Dr Paul Behrens of Edinburgh Law School.

The book brings together nearly twenty experts in the field of criminal justice who debate topical issues in domestic and comparative criminal law as well as transnational and international criminal justice. The authors engage in rigorous analysis of matters as diverse as murder and mandatory life sentences, the crime of genocide in international criminal law and the notion of magnitude, the offence of incitement to terrorism, questions of plea bargaining, and the construction of a universal criminal code.

Among the contributors are leading names in the field of criminal justice, including Professors William Schabas (author of "Genocide in International Law"), Paul Roberts ("Roberts and Zuckerman' s Criminal Evidence"), Roger Cotterrell ("The Politics of Jurisprudence"), David Nelken ("The Limits of the Legal Process"), Mark Drumbl ("Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law"), Jonathan Doak ("Victims' Rights, Human Rights and Criminal Justice: Reconceiving the Role of Third Parties") and Candace McCoy ("How Lawsuits Improve American Policing").

The book is dedicated to Ralph Henham (author of "Sentencing and the Legitimacy of Trial Justice"; Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University), an authority on criminal justice whose many fields of academic engagement include sentencing policy, the legitimacy of trial justice, victims rights, plea bargaining, and international criminal justice.

Dr Behrens said: "It is rare that a book reflects on so many diverse debates to which contemporary criminal justice gives rise and deliberately crosses the boundaries between domestic, transnational, and international justice systems. The creation of intradisciplinary dialogue must count among the best paths for those seeking solutions to the problems that criminal justice encounters. Often enough, similar challenges arise in diverse systems, and it is only through a conscientious effort at learning about the other fields, the conditions that shape them, and the theoretical underpinnings that inform them, that we are able to gain crucial insights from solutions found in the respective areas. The diversity of its topics and the expertise of its authors makes this book an important resource to students, scholars, and practitioners of criminal justice around the world."

Contemporary Challenges to Criminal Justice is available here.

Image credit: Bloomsbury