Comparative Criminal Procedure and Policing

The Illinois Program in Comparative Criminal Procedure and Policing seeks to further knowledge and appreciation of comparative criminal procedure and the comparative study of policing through regular conferences, the first of which was held at the College of Law in January, 2019. Titled “Adversarial Criminal Procedure in the United States, Mexico, and Italy,” the conference brought together legal scholars, reformers, former prosecutors, anthropologists, and historians who write about American, Mexican, and Italian criminal procedure to discuss recent reforms that have transformed the criminal procedure of Mexico and Italy in ways that have made criminal procedure more party-driven and adversarial, with an emphasis on public trials and live testimony. The conference also brought together legal scholars and doctoral students from the University of Florence and the University of Bologna with legal scholars from the University of Illinois and with legal reformers who have worked actively with the Mexican government in the recent reform of the Mexican criminal process. The aim was to explore the differences in origin and emphasis between the adversarial legal systems of the three countries in question. There were panel presentations, discussions with commentators, and a round-table bringing together all the participants to discuss Mexican legal reform and the differences between the three systems. Scholarly contributions were published in the Italian Law Journal.  

Director  

Jacqueline E. Ross – Prentice H. Marshall Professor of Law

Program Events

Past Events

Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop
Adversarial Criminal Procedure in Italy, Mexico and the United States (2019)
Whistleblowers, Internal Investigations, and Compliance Design in the United States, Germany, and Austria (2023)
Lumpers and Splitters: a Discussion of Comparative Research Methods in Law and Social Science (2024)