Bill Stuntz’s landmark book, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, has just been released by Harvard University Press. It is well worth a read for those who are interested in the big picture issues surrounding the American criminal justice system.
Stuntz has been accurately described by Orin as the leading criminal procedure scholar of his generation in this post commemorating Stuntz’s life. (Stuntz passed away earlier this year). In today’s Wall Street Journal, I have this review of the book. As you will see in the review, I believe Stuntz properly identified excessive proceduralism as one of the serious problems in our criminal justice system. While I would have liked to have seen him argue a bit more forcefully for trimming back some of that proceduralism, the book is a tremendous accomplishment — essentially a “must read” for those concerned about the future of American criminal justice.