Book Review: Drug Courts and the Criminal Justice System

• Author: John Gallagher
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567718798682
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

be expected, deals with extradition and its impediments. Practitioners will immediately recognize

the persistent nature of these impediments and appreciate the constructive way in which the author

discusses them.

Parts IV and V, dealing, respectively, with “fallback” and “full-scale” alternatives to extradition,

are where the text really breaks important new ground. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find

such an honest discussion of these often-undocumented and informal practices elsewhere in the

literature. The three full-scale alternatives to extradition that are described are reliance on domestic

immigration law (Chapter 10), informal law enforcement cooperation (Chapter 11), and, the most

controversial alternative, unilateral measures (Chapter 12). The author spells out the various adverse

consequences associated with full-scale alternatives including disrespect for international law, fos-

tering retribution and reciprocity, and undermining the extradition regime and international law

enforcement cooperation more generally.

The author acknowledges that “this area of law is deeply suffused with politics” to the point that it

is often difficult to isolate one from the other. In fact, it is perhaps when the author’s focus shifts to

the political dimension of the extradition process that his discussion of current international coop-

eration challenges becomes most interesting. Extradition, as the author notes, is ultimately about a

state’s power and inclination to wield it. Unfortunately, the author stops short of discussing the

politicization of international cooperation and the potential use of extradition in pursuit of political

objectives.

The book concludes with a set of 11 well-crafted and insightful recommendations aiming prin-

cipally at increasing the use and effectiveness of extradition and strengthening the current extradi-

tion regime, and while so doing, rendering full-scale alternatives to extradition less necessary and

less “desirable.” Policy makers will find these recommendations most useful, and researchers will

see in them a potential path to promising future research. The book may also be of great interest to

graduate students studying comparative criminal law or concerned about international cooperation

in criminal matters.

In addition to extensive quotes and additional information in footnotes, the book contains an

extensive table of cases (internationally and organized by country), a comprehensive table of

bilateral and international extradition treaties (from 1303 to 2009), a glossary, and selected biblio-

graphy, all adding to the value of the book as a major reference tool. There is currently no other

published resource that allows practitioners, law enforcement officials, students, and policy makers

to easily consult all of that information in one place.

Koetzle, D., & Listwan, S. J. (Eds.). (2018). Drug Courts and theCriminal Justice System. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienn er.

227 pp. $72.50 (har dcover), ISBN 9781 626376977.

Reviewed by: John Gallagher, School of Social Work, Indiana University, South Bend, IN, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567718798682

Drug Courts and the Criminal Justice System is a new book edited by Deborah Koetzle, John Jay

College of Criminal Justice, and Shelley Johnson Listwan, University of North Carolina at Charlotte,

Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. The book has 26 contributors, many who have

developed national reputations for expertise in drug court research, policy advocacy, and practice.

Douglas B. Marlowe, for example, is the chief of science, law, and policy at the National Association

of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP), and he has a chapter where he compares and contrasts the

role of drug court judges to judges in traditional criminal proceedings. Drug court judges have

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