The Legal Process and the Promise of Justice: Studies Inspired by the Work of Malcolm Feeley

Description

Malcolm Feeley, one of the founding giants of the law and society field, is also one of its most exciting, diverse, and contemporary scholars. His works have examined criminal courts, prison reform, the legal profession, legal professionalism, and a variety of other important topics of enduring theoretical interest with a keen eye for the practical implications. In this volume, The Legal Process and the Promise of Justice, an eminent group of contemporary law and society scholars offer fresh and original analyzes of his work. They asses the legacy of Feeley's theoretical innovations, put his findings to the test of time, and provide provocative historical and international perspectives for his insights. This collection of original essays not only draws attention to Professor Feeley's seminal writings but also to the theories and ideas of others who, inspired by Feeley, have explored how courts and the legal process really work to provide a promise of justice.

Rosann Greenspan is Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of The Transformation of Criminal Due Process in the Administrative State (2014) and co-editor of the Law Section of the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Second edition, 2015). She was a US Supreme Court Fellow at the US Sentencing Commission and Stanford University's Postdoctoral Fellow in Law and Politics. She received the Western Society of Criminology's Fellows Award for important contributions to the field of criminology. Hadar Aviram is the Miller Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law. Professor Aviram's research focuses on the criminal justice system and examines policing, courtroom practices, and corrections through social science perspectives. She is author of Cheap on Crime: Recession-Era Politics and the Transformation of American Punishment (2015) and the former President of the Western Society of Criminology. Jonathan Simon is the Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of several books on emerging trends in crime control and the role of crime in contemporary governance. Among these books include Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (2006) and Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America (2014).

'Malcolm Feeley's writings about America's contradictory crime wars and criminal justice reform efforts are essential elements of modern criminology. The contributors to this volume take Feeley's thinking in new and innovative directions that no student or scholar of our continuing predicament will want or can afford to miss. A guide to a futuristic Feeleyian criminology!' John Hagan, John D. MacArthur Professor Professor of Sociology and Law, Northwestern University, Illinois 'An extraordinary collection of insightful studies that follow the steps of Malcolm Feeley in relation to the legal process and the promise of justice. It explores the vibrant legacy of this brilliant scholar for the present and it will be a source of inspiration for the future theoretical and empirical developments in these key socio-legal themes, both inside and outside the English speaking contexts.' Maximo Sozzo, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina 'This festschrift for Malcolm Feeley, with contributions from eighteen distinguished scholars, provides powerful accounts of how lawyers and judges link policies of crime and punishment to fundamental problems of governing contemporary societies. Provocative and compelling, this collection confronts the current challenges to liberal democracies and the rule of law with trenchant, grounded analyses.' Susan S. Silbey, Leon and Anne Goldberg Professor of Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'Far from being only a much deserved tribute to Malcolm Feeley, this book opens up new perspectives. By recalling the numerous insights of his scholarship, from The Process is the Punishment to debates on court reform or sociology of legal professionals, this rich array of scholars put these studies in perspective and demonstrate how fruitful his perspective is for socio-legal studies, in several national contexts. The same could even be said beyond that specific field, from the sociology of organizations to public policy analysis.' Liora Israel, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris