Criminal Appeals. Technicality and Prejudicial Error

Handling Criminal Appeals through an Integrated, Computerised Case Management System

This paper traces the development of a criminal case management system for legal aid funded appeals litigation in a Glasgow based law practice, funded in part by the Teaching Companies Scheme. It attempts to place this development in the context of the general trend towards the deployment of such IT solutions to legal problems in a fast-changing environment (Susskind 1998) and, more particularl...

Objective Brains, Prejudicial Images

In this article I argue that brain images constructed with computerized tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are part of a category of "expert images" and are both visually persuasive and also particularly difficult to interpret and understand by non-experts. Following the innovative judicial analogy of "demonstrative evidence" traced by Jennifer Mnookin (1998), I show how bra...

Learning from Error in American Criminal Justice

TriaL aNd ErrOr: faiLurE aNd iNNOVaTiON iN CrimiNaL JuSTiCE rEfOrm

Criminal justice success stories — for example, the sustained reduction in crime in major U.S. cities during the past fifteen years — are poured over by officials from around the world in an effort to distill the lessons and replicate the accomplishments . Best practice manuals, providing protocols intended to guarantee success, are in abundant supply . At the same time, in the criminal justice...

Levels of technicality in scientific communication

The large number of specialized languages which have resulted from the rapid development of modern science and technology, although meant to facilitate communication within each area of specialization, may create barriers to understanding between different levels of competence and specialization. Ways have to be found for identifying and describing the fundamental features of technical and scie...