1st Edition

Criminal Law and Human Rights

By P.H.P.H.M.C. van Kempen Copyright 2014
    496 Pages
    by Routledge

    The significance of fundamental individual rights to substantive criminal law, criminal procedure law and sentencing law is undeniable for anyone who is familiar with the criminal justice system. The fourteen essays selected for this volume portray and discuss the meaning and rationale of those human rights that are most relevant to that system. They have been chosen for their high quality, timeless approach and general attention to issues that are of universal interest and thus not too closely related to the technicalities of a specific criminal justice system. In combination with the introduction to this volume, the essays cover almost the entire criminal justice system and offer a general overview as well as an in-depth examination of criminal law and human rights. As a result, this volume is essential for researchers, lecturers and students concerned with the tensions and harmonies between the values the criminal justice system and human rights respectively serve.

    Contents: Introduction; Part I Criminal Procedural law: Four threats to the presumption of innocence, Andrew Ashworth; Pretrial and preventive detention of suspected terrorists: options and constraints under international law, Douglass Cassel; Privacy as struggle, Andrew E. Taslitz; Why must trials be fair?, Stefan Trechsel; Re-conceptualizing the right of silence as an effective fair trial standard, John Jackson; Confrontation: the search for basic principles, Richard D. Friedman; The protection of human dignity in interrogations: may interrogative torture ever be tolerated? Reflections in light of recent German and Israeli experiences, Miriam Gur-Arye and Florian Jessberger; Rethinking double jeopardy: justice and finality in criminal process, Ian Dennis; The doctrine of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding states’ duty to punish human rights violations and its dangers, Fernando Felipe Basch. Part II Substantive Criminal Law: Nulla poena sine lege, Jerome Hall; Hate speech in constitutional jurisprudence: a comparative analysis, Michel Rosenfeld; Freedom of religion and criminal law: a legal appraisal. From the principle of separation of church and state to the principle of pluralist democracy?, Piet Hein van Kempen; The human rights implications of a ‘cultural defense’, Michaël Fischer. Part III Sentencing: Life imprisonment: recent issues in national and international law, Dirk van Zyl Smit. Name index.

    Biography

    Professor Dr. P.H.P.H.M.C. van Kempen is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, and Chair of the Department of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Criminology at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He is Secretary-General of the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation (IPPF) and part-time Justice (Judge) at the Court of Appeals, ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.