The McDonaldization of Justice and the Disappearance of Fair Trial?

11th Conference on ‘The future of Adversarial and Inquisitorial Systems’ Criminal Justice Centre and School of Law, University of Warwick, UK

2-4 April 2020

Are preoccupations with managerialism, cost saving, preventive justice and the avoidance of trial supplanting the values of adversarial and inquisitorially rooted systems of criminal justice? What model of efficiency do these trends promote? As the trial becomes increasingly rare, along with opportunities to challenge the reliability of evidence, the accused finds herself encouraged to make an admission at the earliest opportunity based on the information gathered during the police investigation. The presence of defence counsel at strategic points in the process lends some legitimacy, but the practices of law reflect little of the safeguards and values so celebrated in the rhetoric of both adversarial and inquisitorial-type systems. Processes are being ‘simplified’ – not in ways that make the process clear and easy to navigate – but through the removal of fundamental safeguards deemed too costly and time-consuming such as juries, judicial investigation, or any form of trial or contestation of charges. Added to this are new types of evidence, gathered in as yet unregulated ways, the nature and provenance of which require careful scrutiny if they are to form the basis of prosecution and conviction. The result is what has been described by Ritzer as a kind of McDonaldisation of criminal justice. From a comparative perspective, this conference invites consideration of core issues within this theme. This might include, for example, the Swiss penal order and other ways of avoiding trial; how the defence is co-opted to provide guarantees that enable other safeguards to be reduced; the broad shift away from judicial and court roles, to a stronger prosecution function; or the role of machine learning (AI) in criminal justice. This is the 11th conference in the series, the result of a collaboration between the Universities of Basel, Bologna, North Carolina, Warwick and Duke University. The first part of the conference on Thursday 2 April is dedicated to panel presentations by Early Career Researchers from across Europe and North America. This is followed by the main conference on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 April 2020. This will include a panel discussing themes connected to Hodgson’s “The Metamorphosis of Criminal Justice” (April 2020, OUP, https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-metamorphosis-of-criminal-justice-9780199981427?q=hodgson&cc=gb&lang=en If you would like to join us, please register at law.events@warwick.ac.uk Attendance at the conference is free, but if you would like to join the dinner on Friday evening, this is £35 (please request your place when registering).

Thursday 2 April 2020 – Early Careers Conference

09:30-09:50 Registration

09:50-10:00 WELCOME

Jackie Hodgson (Warwick) and Solange Mouthaan (Warwick)

10:00-11:20 (I) EVIDENCE

Chair Laurene Soubise, Liverpool

Matt Thomason, Nottingham The Managerialism of Criminal Evidence: Pressures to agree evidence

Satwant Kaur, Warwick The ICC and collection of evidence

Isadora Neroni Rezende, Bologna Facial Recognition in Police Hands: Assessing the Clearview Case from an European Perspective

11:20-11:35 Coffee

11:35-12:35 (II) PROTECTING VULNERABLE PEOPLE

Chair Solange Mouthaan, Warwick

Dr Miranda Bevan, LSE At what cost? The criminalisation of children when austerity, adversity and the adversarial process collide

Travis Seale-Carlisle, Duke Assessing Pre-trial Services: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis of Outcomes in Durham, NC

12:35-13:35 Lunch

14:30-15:15 (III) TRIAL

Chair Mojca Plesnicar, Ljubljana

Sanjeeb Hossain, Warwick Trials in absentia at the International Crimes Tribunals of Bangladesh

Janneke de Snaijer, Basel Who is to blame if a car 'on autopilote' runs over a child? - New Responsibilities of Human Drivers as a Consequence to Driving Automation

Jay Gormley, Strathclyde The Inefficiency of Plea Bargaining

14:55-15:15 Coffee

15:15-16:15 (IV) OUTCOMES

Chair Giulio Illuminati, Bologna

Chris Riley, Warwick Comparative post-exoneration experiences of the wrongfully convicted

Dominik Tschudi, Basel Confiscation of Bitcoin? Cryptocurrencies and Criminal Justice Systems - the Swiss Approach to Seizure of Blockchain-based Assets

16:15 Concluding Comments

Friday 3 April 2020

09:00 Coffee

09:20-09:30 WELCOME

Andrew Sanders (Head, Warwick Law School) and Jackie Hodgson (Warwick)

09:30-11:00 (I) PROSECUTORIAL DISCRETION

Chair Sabine Gless, Basel

Discussant Andrew Sanders, Warwick

Rosa Anna Ruggiero, Tuscia Prosecutorial discretion versus mandatory prosecution of corporate crimes: the Italian experience

Sarah Summers, Zurich Prosecutors as Judges? The Case of the Swiss Summary Penalty Order

11:00-11:30 Coffee

11:30-13:00 (II) COURTROOM CULTURES

Chair Alan Norrie, Warwick

Discussant Jodie Blackstock, JUSTICE

John Jackson, Nottingham The Shrinking Orality/Confrontation Paradigm: Addressing the Fair Trial Deficit

Cyrus Tata, Strathclyde Efficiency v Participation? How ‘Humanisation Work’ resolves the legitimacy gap

13:00-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:15 (III) METAMORPHOSIS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Chair Michele Caianiello, Bologna

Stewart Field Managerialism & criminal justice in a comparative context

Sharon Weill, American University of Paris & Sciences-Po Slow Justice: French terrorism trials of foreign fighters

15:15-15:45 Coffee

15:45-17:00 (III) METAMORPHOSIS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Chair Victor Tadros, Warwick

Discussant Jackie Hodgson, Warwick

Kent Roach, Toronto The Global Migration of the Criminal Cases Review Commission

Joe Kennedy, UNC The Punitive Imagination

17:00-18:00 Wine Reception

19:00 Dinner

Saturday 4 April 2020

09:30-11:15 (IV) ROBOJUSTICE Chair Jackie Hodgson, Warwick Discussant Nathan Griffiths, Warwick

Michele Caianiello, Bologna AI systems in the promotion of EU defence rights

Sabine Gless, Basel “Machine evidence” in the criminal trial? Germany & the US

Brandon Garrett, Duke Judging algorithms in forensics

11:15-11:30 Coffee

11:30-13:00 (V) NEW APPROACHES TO TRIAL Chair Joe Kennedy, UNC Discussant Kent Roach, Toronto

Mojca Plesnicar, Ljubljana Katja Šugman-Stubbs, Ljubljana & Slovenian Constitutional Court Radical changes in criminal procedure: the case of plea-bargaining in Slovenia

Jodie Blackstock, JUSTICE Rehabilitation and non-trial processes

13:00 Close of Conference