Del 116 i serien International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology

Adversarial Case-Making

An Ethnography of English Crown Court Procedure

Inbunden, Engelska, 2010

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Cases are not objects at hand for legal decision-making; cases are not echoes from a past crime. Cases are, first of all, made within compound discourse apparatus, here the English Crown Court and the procedure/s attached to it. This book reveals the legal production of cases including their relevant features. The socio-legal ethnography visits the natural sites of adversarial case-making: law firms, barristers’ chambers, and Crown Courts. It examines the role and dynamics of client-lawyer meetings, pre-trial hearings, plea bargaining sessions, and jury trials. It focuses on the lawyers’ case-making activities, their procedural contexts, and the resulting cases. As an ethnographic discourse study, the book develops a trans-sequential perspective on the interrelated events and processes of case-making – and by doing so, overcomes the shortcomings of talk-bias and text-bias. The trans-sequential approach pays out in detailed case studies on an alibi, on guilt, or the barrister’s notes; it pays out as well in cross-case studies dealing with legal care, procedural infrastructure, or the case system in the common law tradition.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2010-09-24
Mått160 x 240 x 24 mm
Vikt706 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieInternational Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology
Antal sidor286
FörlagBrill
ISBN9789004187269

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Thomas Scheffer led the law-in-action Research Group. Currently he is Heisenberg scholar at the Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He published on communication/ knowledge processes in migration control, social work, parliamentary inquiries, and legal casework. His research interests include micro-sociology, sociology of knowledge, political ethnography, and cultural comparison/translation. Scheffer is spokesperson of the section “sociology of law” in the German Sociological Association.

List of FiguresForewordIntroductionOn field accessRendering case-making observableOutlook1. A case of assault: The rise and fall of an alibiThe ontological versions of the alibi-story and its analysabilityThe rise of the alibiIntermezzoThe story’s declineTowards the duality of mobilisation2. Framing law-in-actionWhere and when is the field? Event and process in Social TheoryEventful process, processed eventsWeighing event and processOutlook: the adversarial procedure as eventful process3. A case of indecent assault: Fitting sleep-walking expertise inInterrogating a single caseExpert evidence in criminal proceedingsSleep-walking expertise and its relevant other knowledgesDiscussion: Distributed knowing and judicial decision-making4. File-work and procedural careStyles of file-work in a criminal law firmGood reasons for different styles of file-workConclusion: Legal care in context5. A case of wounding with intent: The barrister’s day in courtBefore trialThe barrister’s work during trialThe closing speechConclusion: The minutiae of case-representation6. Procedural resources and procedural infrastructureThe courtThe fileThe storyTowards procedural infrastructure7. A case of murder: No regret! Direct and indirect moralisingThe moralising sites in a Crown Court caseDiscussion: Characteristics and rationale of indirect moralising8. The case in the case-systemThe case as tripartite signCase, fact-sensitiveCase, ruled and rulingCase, decision-orientedThe archive of the case-systemOff the case: Components in isolationConclusion: The micro-foundations of adversarialismMechanisms of case-makingComplexities of case-makingEpilogueReferencesIndex

"The book will prove eye-opening for those considering entering the legal profession, either as solicitor or barrister. [...] Adversarial Case-Making’s ethnographic and micro-sociological methods provide insights that cannot be achieved other than through years of fieldwork and the filing, coding and categorizing of mountains of ethnographic data, such as files, documents, meeting notes, transcripts and archive material." - Lisa Vanhala, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Human Rights, in: Law & Politics Book Review, 2011, pp. 693-695