Center on the Administration of Criminal Law
The Center is an apolitical advocacy organization and think-tank dedicated to promoting good government practices in the criminal justice system.
Center News:
Executive Director Anthony S. Barkow testifies before Congress regarding corporate monitors.
- Faculty Director Rachel Barkow published "Institutional Design and the Policing of Prosecutors: Lessons from Administrative Law" in the Stanford Law Review, "The Court of Life and Death: The Two Tracks of Constitutional Sentencing Law and the Case for Uniformity" in the Michigan Law Review, and "The Politics of Forgiveness: Reconceptualizing Clemency" in the Federal Sentencing Reporter.
- Executive Director Anthony Barkow testified before the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law regarding proposed legislation that would prohibit former federal prosecutors from serving as or for corporate monitors in matters that they investigated or prosecuted when in government service. Read and watch the testimony. The testimony was an outgrowth of the Center's inaugural major annual conference, "Regulation By Prosecutors," and the book to be published out of that conference, Prosecutors In The Boardroom: Using Criminal Law To Regulate Corporate Conduct.
- The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder. This marks the second time in just over a year in which the Supreme Court granted certiorari in a case in which the Center filed an amicus brief in support of a grant.
- Faculty Director Professor Rachel Barkow testified before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and before the United States Sentencing Commission. Before the House subcommittee, Professor Barkow testified regarding the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency and discussed, among other things, the value of including state attorney general enforcement as a counterweight to the possibility of agency capture. Read her testimony here and view it here (panel 2). Before the Commission, Professor Barkow made various recommendations for reforming the federal sentencing system. (Read her testimony here.)
- On April 23, 2010, the Center will host its second major annual conference, "Allocating Prosecutorial Power: How Prosecutors Compete, Cooperate and Clash." Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, will deliver the keynote address. Read more here.
About the Center
The Center analyzes important issues of criminal law, particularly focusing on prosecutorial power and discretion.The Center analyzes important issues of criminal law, particularly focusing on prosecutorial power and discretion. It pursues this mission in three main arenas: academia, the courts, and public policy debates. The Center's academic component researches criminal justice practices at all levels of government, produces scholarship on criminal justice issues, and hosts symposia and conferences to address significant topics in criminal law and procedure. The litigation component uses the Center’s research and experience with criminal justice practices to inform courts in important criminal justice matters, particularly in cases in which exercises of prosecutorial discretion create significant legal issues. The public policy component applies the Center’s criminal justice expertise to improve the public dialogue on criminal justice matters, including in discussions with elected and appointed public officials and with the media.
The Center is the first and only organization dedicated to defining good government practices in criminal prosecutions. No other organization is dedicated to improving prosecution practices through research, litigation, and the improvement of public policy.
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