The Policy Dilemma: Federal Crime Policy and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration

A Review of The Policy Dilemma: Federal Crime Policy and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration by Malcolm M. Feeley and Austin D. Sara

Introduction of Videotaping of Interrogations and the Lessons of the Imaichi Case: A Case of Conventional Criminal Justice Policy-Making in Japan

Malcolm M. Feeley examined cases of criminal justice reform in the United States, where reforms can be conceived and initiated in a very open structure, but implementation of the introduced reforms can be handed over to highly fragmented implementers. The story of mandatory videotaping of interrogations and accompanying changes in Japan demonstrates the reform process at the other end of the scale, where the members of the criminal justice establishment can exert a strong influence even at the conception and initiation stages, and have even stronger control at the implementation and routinization stages. We believe that Feeley’s theoretical framework can be expanded to be more generally applicable to court reforms outside the United States. This could be achieved by introducing the degree of openness of the policy-making process at the conceptualization and initiation stages, and by introducing a degree of fragmentation of the policy-making process at the implementation and routinization stages as central independent variables which determine the course of the reform

East Asian Court Reform on Trial: Comments on the Contributions

I am honored to have my book, Court Reform on Trial: Why Simple Solutions Fail, serve as the organizing framework for this symposium. The enterprise has proven valuable as it provided a reason to assemble a set of articles that focus on important changes in Asian courts in recent decades. Further, it appears that the reforms in three of the countries are loosely related to each other. While Japan had a head start on judicial reforms, both Korea and Taiwan embarked on the same path as soon as they had shed authoritarian rule. China has pursued a more ambitious project. Court reform is part of a massive effort to keep up with massive changes in society and the economy since the 1980s

Will Penal Populism in Japan Decline?: A Discussion

I intend to play the role of discussant at a session where five papers have been presented and to draw implications from the perspective I presented in Miyazawa (2007a ). I revise my thesis about penal populism in Japan slightly using the concept of leadership from the front presented by Johnson .However, I still conclude that penal populism in Japan is not likely to decline in the near future

Law, Legitimacy, and Symbols: An Expanded View of Law and Society in Transition

A Review of Law and Society in Transition: Toward Responsive Law by Philippe Nonet and Philip Selznic