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The Trial on Trial Volume 2

The Trial on Trial Volume 2 Judgment and Calling to Account

Author: Anthony Duff; Lindsey Farmer; Sandra Marshall; Victor Tadros
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781841135427
Published In: April 2006
Format: Hardback , 280 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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What are the aims of a criminal trial? What social functions should it perform? And how is the trial as a political institution linked to other institutions in a democratic polity? What follows if we understand a criminal trial as calling a defendant to answer to a charge of criminal wrongdoing and, if he is judged to be responsible for such wrongdoing, to account for his conduct? A normative theory of the trial, an account of what trials ought to be and of what ends they should serve, must take these central aspects of the trial seriously; but they raise a number of difficult questions.

They suggest that the trial should be seen as a communicative process: But what kinds of communication should it involve; Are these kinds of communication in which lay participation is relevant or legitimate; What is the relationship between such communication (and the procedural rights that it generates) and the pursuit of truth? Behind such questions, lie further questions about the political legitimacy of the trial. What kind of political theory does a communicative conception of the trial require? Can trials ever actually amount to more than the imposition of state power on the defendant?

What political role might trials play in conflicts that must deal not simply with issues of individual responsibility but with broader collective wrongs, including wrongs perpetrated by, or in the name of, the state? These issues are addressed by the essays in this volume, which arose from two workshops held in 2004. This is the second of three planned volumes to be produced by the Trial on Trial project, which aims to produce an adequate normative account of the criminal trial and its proper role in a democratic polity.

The first volume, "Truth and Due Process" (a collection of essays based on workshops in 2003) was published in 2004; the third volume, in which the four editors of this volume develop their own normative account, was published in 2007.

Antony Duff is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stirling.
Lindsay Farmer is Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow.
Sandra Marshall is Professor of Philosophy in the University of Stirling.
Victor Tadros is a Professor of Law at the University of Warwick.

...offers a range of perspectives on an important issue...it encourages the reader to begin to unpick some received wisdoms concerning the assumed rationality and function of the trial process.
Hannah Quirk
British Journal of Criminology
Vol. 47, No. 6, November 2007

The authors took me with them on their exciting quest, and some of the chapters really were exciting.
Nicola Padfield
The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol 46, No 2
May-07

…an enjoyable and difficult exercise in legal reasoning…
a challenging read and I wholly recommend this series of books…
Sally Ramage

...a most informative and varied analysis of the criminal trial...presents a huge variety of arguments and ideas on the nature, the theory and reality of the criminal trial. The profound, and in parts highly provocative, articles raise high expectations for the third volume of The Trial on Trial
Sabine Swoboda
Criminal Law Forum
(2007) 18