Academic literature on the topic 'Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice'

<p>Due to the growing problems of overcrowding and prison congestion in Nigeria, the need to conduct this pro bono study became imperative. This study is a needs assessment, evaluation and fact finding of the challenges and access to judges problems of detainees of Abakaliki and Afikpo Federal Prisons in Ebonyi State Nigeria. Bearing in mind the UN Standard Minimum Rules and other instruments in international law, the project report generally captures the following information:-</p><ul><li>State of the Structure of the prisons </li><li>Infrastructure at the prisons </li><li>Facilities at the prisons </li><li>Welfare of the inmates at the prison </li><li>Welfare of the prisons staff </li><li>Access to Justice by the inmates and</li><li>Other ancillary issues such as children in prison, over age in prison, nature of offences etc. </li></ul><p>In carrying out this study, empirical method of data collection and analysis was used. The two prisons in the state were visited and 250 prisoners responded to both the questionnaire and direct interview. Some staff of the Nigerian Prison Service and warders were also interviewed. The findings of this study were significant and highly revealing. The study specifically highlights certain issues of concern and proffers recommendations to address identified challenges. The report would serve as a national and international reference material as well as a programmatic tool for working out specific programmes and interventions to address the myriad problems facing the Nigerian prison system specifically, and the criminal justice administration system in Nigeria generally. The findings in this project are significant, the recommendations rich, we enjoin the government and development partners to implement them.</p><p> </p>

The aim of this study is to discuss the topic of plea negotiations in criminal procedures from a European perspective. The first part of the paper weighs up the advantages and disadvantages of the recent massive spread of negotiated justice in Europe and discusses the best way to reduce the risks involved with this phenomenon. The second part sets out to illustrate how the first EU Directives, adopted under Article 82 tfeu, have contributed to fairer legal institutions based on negotiations and agreements. The final part of the paper casts a glance at the future, and considers whether it would be appropriate for European institutions to adopt minimum standards on negotiated criminal justice.

Articles 82(3) and 83(3) tfeu give Member States the possibility to suspend the legislative procedure of eu criminal law. Article 82(3) allows that kind of emergency brake mechanism for the process of adopting minimum standards for harmonising rules of criminal procedure enhancing judicial cooperation in criminal matters and Article 83(3) for establishing minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and sanctions. A Member State can only use the emergency brake clause when the proposal for the directive would affect the fundamental aspects of its criminal justice system. This prerequisite deserves a closer analysis, therefore the aim of this article is to interpret the meaning of tfeu articles 82(3) and 83(3) to better understand the limitations of the harmonisation of criminal law in the European Union.

Recent practices in the administration of youth justice across Australian state and territory jurisdictions reveal a powerful tension between the punitive imperative of “tough on crime” political populism, and internationally agreed minimum standards relevant to the treatment of children. In questioning the extent to which human rights standards can and should be used as a useful tool to counter punitive youth justice practices, this article identifies major points of discrepancy between Australia’s international legal obligations and the doctrine and operation of domestic criminal law as it applies to children in conflict with the law. Examining youth justice “crises” in two Australian states, the Northern Territory and Victoria, the article concludes that while child rights are not directly justiciable in Australia, global standards on youth justice provide a unifying discourse that is resistant to the vagaries of populism, and which can guide reform for child rights compliant youth justice legislation and practice.

This analysis attempts to project changes in types of crime and criminal justice response to crime in the early decades of the 21st century by assuming continuity in the technological, economic, and political trends of the last years of the 20th century. I predict that shifts in general rates of crime will be less important than changes in particular types of offense in stable nations, and that rates of. property crime will show more transnational similarity than rates and trends in serious violence. With respect to criminal justice practices, both technology and normative standards will exert pressure toward greater similarity in criminal justice practice among developed nations, with normative pressure being the more important for legal proceedings and punishment than technical change. The executioner is threatened by this trend, even in the United States. The prison warden has comfortable job security.

AbstractThe traditional vision that international courts and tribunals do ‘good’ or create a better world through law is increasingly under question. International criminal justice started largely as a ‘faith’-based project, but is increasingly criticized in light of its actual record and impact. This essay examines this journey and, in particular, the role of ‘faith’ and ‘fact’ in the treatment and assessment of international criminal courts, through four core themes (‘effectiveness’, ‘fairness’, ‘fact-finding’, and legacy’) addressed in André Gide's version of the parable of The Return of the Prodigal Son. It argues that, in its ‘homecoming’, international criminal justice would benefit from a greater degree of realism by openly accepting its limitations and embracing its expressivist function. It cautions at the same time against exclusively quantitative understandings of impact, arguing that the power of international courts and tribunals lies not so much in their quantitative record as in their role in setting a moral or legal example or shaping discourse. It concludes that a better match between ‘idealism’ and ‘realism’ requires greater attention to the interplay between ‘international’, ‘domestic’, and ‘local’ responses to conflict, as well as recognition of their legitimate differences.

In recent years, more and more attention has been focused on the interests of crime victims, including their enlarging role in criminal proceedings. The procedural rights of, and assistance to, victims of crime are gradually becoming essential aspects of contemporary criminal justice systems. In the transnational context at the European Union level, the Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime is of significant importance as this legal instrument contains some concrete rights for victims of crime and clearer obligations imposed on the competent national authorities. Unfortunately, in many EU Member States the regulations on the standing victims in criminal proceedings are not properly or fully implemented into national legislation. This paper aims to give some insight to the provisions of the EU Victims’ Directive, and also the issue regarding its transposition into the Polish legal order.

The article addresses the development of international and European policy in relation to victims of crime. It starts with an outline of the 1985 United Nations (UN) Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. It demonstrates that compliance by Member States with the provisions of the Declaration is still unsatisfactory, despite serious efforts by the UN to promote its standards and norms. A similar trend is described on a regional level in Europe. In 2001, the European Union adopted a Framework Decision (a legally binding instrument) on minimum rights for crime victims in the criminal justice system. This document brought some improvement to victims and their position compared to the UN Declaration, particularly in terms of limit repeated questioning, advanced informational rights, reimbursement of expenses and construction of court facilities. Nevertheless, evaluations undertaken in 2004 and 2009 have proved that none of the Member States fully complied with its content. This document was replaced with the new one - the EU Directive on establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. It is stronger instrument than the Framework Decision and it includes more demanding standards. But, its implementation needs to be monitored. Therefore, in the presentation it is argued that a lack of compliance is usually followed by the adoption of an even stronger legal instrument, containing even more ambitious rights for victims of crime. It is questioned whether this is the most productive approach. It is doubted that ?hard law? is always more effective than ?soft law?. The most recent generation of more elevated rights run the risk of leading to ?victim fatigue? on the part of the officials responsible for the operation of the criminal justice system.

This article is about the rules on age and crime in relation to juveniles in mainland China. It starts with an outline of the Chinese law on age and crime in relation to children and young people. This is followed by a brief analysis of the international legal framework – norms, standards, rules and guidelines – pertaining to global child protection and juvenile justice policies. It then moves on to examine juvenile justice policy and practice in China, the reality of juvenile offending in the country and, accordingly, the calls for reform of the age of criminal responsibility. Finally, it concludes that China’s problem is not about a low age of criminal responsibility or resistance to the international law, but more to do with a deeper understanding of it and implementation. From a comparative perspective, it utilises China as a case study to claim that attention in juvenile justice in any given jurisdiction should be shifted away from (re)setting the minimum crime age to the development of child-centred juvenile justice that should be research-informed, under the human rights framework and that moves away from the legal institutions and the disproportionate punitive interventions.

By focusing on the adoption of EU minimum standards in the field of procedural rights in criminal proceedings, this article will assess the relationship between secondary law harmonisation, and the principles of effectiveness of EU law and of effective judicial protection in Europe's area of criminal justice. This article will begin by exploring the third pillar legacy on harmonisation, by focusing on what the EU has not done (i.e.to legislate on a horizontal instrument on defence rights) and what the EU has done (i.e.to legislate specifically on judgments in absentia with the specific purpose of clarifying, and in some instances limiting, the grounds for refusal in a number of EU mutual recognition measures). The analysis will then examine the impact of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and will evaluate critically the impact of EU harmonisation measures on defence rights on effective judicial protection. The analysis will focus on the relationship between EU law and national law, as well as on the relationship between EU law and the Charter and ECHR. Great emphasis will be placed on the strengthening of enforcement avenues offered by the normalisation of EU criminal law after Lisbon. These avenues have the potential to ensure that, even minimum, harmonisation measures in the field of defence rights can have a real impact on enhancing effective judicial protection and achieving the effectiveness of EU legislation on the ground.

This chapter analyses the pervasive impact of the Charter on the Canadian criminal justice system. Active judicial interpretation of Charter rights has put in place distinctive constitutional standards of substantive law, including those of fault, and struck down oppressive laws for arbitrariness and overbreadth. Also examined are new standards for police powers to stop, search, detain and interrogate, fair trial rights such as the duty of full Crown disclosure, and for assessing mandatory minimum sentences. This chapter describes and welcomes a robust exclusionary discretion for evidence obtained in violation of the Charter. It is suggested that the Canadian Charter standards are no panacea and are sometimes too weak but that they have often provided a welcome balance to the expedient lure of law-and-order politics.

The special edition of the national professional scientific and practical legal magazine “The Slovo of the National School of Judges of Ukraine” was published, which contains reports delivered at the online conference "Ensuring the unity of judicial practise: the legal positions of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court and standards of the Council of Europe", held on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. time of thematic sessions and webinars for judges of each of the courts of cassation in the Supreme Court, as well as joint sessions for judges of different jurisdictions at the end of 2020. The National School of Judges of Ukraine held these events together with the Supreme Court and in synergy with the Council of Europe projects "Support to Judicial Reform in Ukraine", "Further Support for Ukraine's Implementation in the Context of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights", USAID New Justice Program, OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine. These are projects that support various aspects of judicial reform in Ukraine, compliance with Council of Europe standards and recommendations, offering best practices from member states to help make priorities in the national reform process. The conference and training events were attended by more than 550 participants - judges of the Supreme Court, other courts, leading Ukrainian and foreign experts, representatives of the legal community. Trainers and all structural subdivisions of the National School of Judges of Ukraine were involved, the training activities of which were identified by the CCEJ in one of its conclusions as one of the important tools to ensure the unity of judicial practice. Programs of activities included reports on the role of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in ensuring the unity of judicial practice and the impact on the legal system; unity of judicial practice in the context of standards - improving access to justice in Ukraine: removing procedural obstacles and ensuring the right to an impartial court, approaches to identifying cases of minor complexity and cases of significant public interest or exceptional importance for a party in the context of access to court of cassation: practice the supreme courts of the member states of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights; key positions of the Supreme Court - application of the provisions of the procedural codes on the grounds for transferring the case to the Chamber, the joint chamber or the Supreme Court, the impact of its decisions on legislative activity, ensuring the specialization of courts and judges, the practice of the Supreme Court of the Supreme Court on administrative cases, the practice of considering cases of disciplinary liability of judges, conclusions on the rules of criminal law, review of court decisions in criminal proceedings in exceptional circumstances; the impact of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the case law of national courts and the justification of court decisions and the "balance of rights" in civil cases in its practice, the development of the doctrine of human rights protection; ECtHR standards on evidence and the burden of proof, the conclusions of the CCEJ and their reflection in judicial practice; judicial rule-making in the activities of European courts of cassation, etc. The issues raised are analyzed in the Ukrainian and international contexts from report to report, which, we hope, will be appreciated by every lawyer - both practitioners and theorists. As well as the fact that the depth of disclosure of each of the topics through the practice of application serves the development of law and contributes to the formation of the unity of judicial practice of the Supreme Court, the creation of case law is a contribution to rulemaking and lawmaking. The conversion of intellectual discourse into the practice of Ukrainian courts is an important step towards strengthening public confidence in the judiciary. And here the unifying force of the Supreme Court can be especially important, as the Chairman of the Supreme Court Valentyna Danishevska rightly remarked, speaking about the expectations of the society.

This chapter guides the criminology student on how to undertake research and embark on knowledge production, with particular emphasis on the work required for doing a dissertation. It provides an array of practical and creative tips for developing the student's role as a knowledge producer and becoming a person who contributes to what is — and what is not — known about crime and the criminal justice system. The objective is to enhance the student's undergraduate studies by encouraging him/her to think and act as an independent researcher. The chapter explains why research is important and highlights the breadth of opportunities offered by being an undergraduate researcher in criminology. It considers effective ways of choosing one's research topic, the core features of a dissertation or research project, ethical standards for researchers in criminology, and unconventional methods of dissemination for research.