Book Review: Jackson, J., Langer, M. & Tillers P. (Eds.). (2008). Crime, Procedure and Evidence in a Comparative and International Context: Essays in Honour of Professor Damaška. Oxford, UK: Hart, 438 pp

Published date01 December 2009
DOI10.1177/1057567709349189
AuthorPeter W. Fenton,Michael B. Shapiro
Date01 December 2009
Subject MatterArticles
(who tend to be more liberal in their views, and thus, less supportive of punitive measures). Regard-
less, the findings have important implications for current and future policy on bias crime, suggesting
that citizens may want government to take bias crime more seriously and are not as punitively
oriented as suggested by quantitative bias crime research.
Meghan Ashlin Rich
University of Scranton, Pennsylvania
Jackson, J., Langer, M. & Tillers P. (Eds.). (2008).
Crime, Procedure and Evidence in a Comparative and International Context:
Essays in Honour of Professor Damas
ˇka. Oxford, UK: Hart, 438 pp.
DOI: 10.1177/1057567709349189
Mirjan R. Damasˇka is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at
Yale Law School. Professor Damasˇka is a product of both the Eastern European legal system and,
more recently, the Anglo-American legal system. He was a practitioner and teacher at the University
of Zagreb in his native Croatia. He came to America first in the 1960s as a visiting professor at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Law, and returned to a tenured position there in 1971 due to
political unrest in Yugoslavia. In 1976, he joined the faculty at Yale Law School and has remained
there since that time.
Professor Damasˇka is a periodic advisor to the Croatian government regarding its relationship
with the International War Crimes Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia as well as to the International
Court of Justice in The Hague. He is the author of six books and numerous articles. He is best known
for his work in international comparative law. Additionally, his most significant works are The Faces
of Justice and State Authority: A Comparative Approach to the Legal Process (Yale University
Press, 1991) and Evidence Law Adrift (Yale University Press, 1997).
John Jackson, Ma´ximo Langer, and Peter Tillers have edited this new work composed of some 20
essays about Professor Damasˇka’s work. The book includes a substantial introduction by two of the
editors, followed by a tribute to Professor Damasˇka by Harold Koh, Dean of Yale Law School
(‘‘Damasˇka’s scholarly approach emphasizes three demands: careful attention to context; resisting
oversimplification; and the need for legal systems to adjust to revolutionary change ... [b]ut in the
end, perhaps the most lasting image of Mirjan will be as an intellectual bridge between legal cul-
tures.’’ pp. 34–35), and then is divided into sections covering topics as widely ranged as national and
international criminal procedure, comparative law, evidence, criminal law, and legal theory. The
book concludes with a postscript and an interview with Professor Damasˇka. Although in the intro-
duction the editors describe the book as ‘‘a series of reflective and critical essays organized around
certain key themes relevant to comparative law,’’ the emphasis is more on the reflective. What is
lacking in many of the essays is a truly critical component. This is not to say that the book serves
no purpose, as indeed it brings Professor Damasˇka and his work to the attention of many who may
never have heard of him.
From a purely structural standpoint, it might have been helpful to put the excellent interview with
Professor Damasˇka, which is found at the end of the book, at the beginning. The interview helps to
explain Professor Damasˇka and clearly shows that his expertise in legal systems is a result of his
immersion first in Eastern European and then the Anglo-American legal systems. Rather, the editors
chose to place the interview in an appendix to the book and instead began with an introduction that is
Book Reviews 495

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