In this book Richard Susskind, a pioneer of rethinking law for the digital age confronts the challenges facing our legal system and the potential for technology to bring much needed change. Drawing on years of experience leading the discussion on conceiving and delivering online justice, Susskind here charts and develops the public debate.

In this authoritative reckoning with the eighteen-year record of the Rehnquist Court, Georgetown law professor Mark Tushnet reveals how the decisions of nine deeply divided justices have left the future of the Court; and the nation; hanging in the balance. Many have assumed that the chasm on the Court has been between its liberals and its conservatives. In reality, the division was between those in tune with the modern post-Reagan Republican Party and those who, though considered to be in the Court's center, represent an older Republican tradition. As a result, the Court has modestly promoted the agenda of today's economic conservatives, but has regularly defeated the agenda of social issues conservatives; while paving the way for more radically conservative path in the future.

Mass Incarceration on Trial examines a series of landmark decisions about prison conditions-culminating in Brown v. Plata, decided in May 2011 by the U.S. Supreme Court-that has opened an unexpected escape route from this trap of "tough on crime" politics. This set of rulings points toward values that could restore legitimate order to American prisons and, ultimately, lead to the demise of mass incarceration. This book offers a provocative and brilliant reading to the end of mass incarceration.

In Online Courts and the Future of Justice, Richard Susskind, the world's most cited author on the future of legal services, shows how litigation will be transformed by technology and proposes a solution to the global access-to-justice problem. In most advanced legal systems, the resolution of civil disputes takes too long, costs too much, and the process is not just antiquated; it is unintelligible to ordinary mortals. The courts of some jurisdictions are labouring under staggering backlogs - 100 million cases in Brazil, 30 million in India. More people in the world now have internet access than access to justice. Drawing on almost 40 years in the fields of legal technology and jurisprudence, Susskind shows how we can use the remarkable reach of the internet (more than half of humanity is now online) to help people understand and enforce their legal rights. Online courts provide 'online judging' - the determination of cases by human judges but not in physical courtrooms. Instead, evidence and arguments are submitted through online platforms through which judges also deliver their decisions. Online courts also use technology to enable courts to deliver more than judicial decisions. These 'extended courts' provide tools to help users understand relevant law and available options, and to formulate arguments and assemble evidence. They offer non-judicial settlements such as negotiation and early neutral evaluation, not as an alternative to the public court system but as part of it. A pioneer of online courts, Susskind maintains that they will displace much conventional litigation. He rigorously assesses the benefits and drawbacks, and looks ahead, predicting how AI, machine learning, and virtual reality will likely come to dominate court service.

Rights of robots, a closer collaboration between law and the health sector, the relation between justice and development - these are some of the topics covered in The Law of the Future and the Future of Law: Volume II. The central question is: how will law evolve in the coming years? This book gives you a rich array of visions on current legal trends. The readable think pieces offer indications of law's cutting edge. The book brings new material that is not available in the first volume of The Law of the Future and the Future of Law, published in June 2011. Among the authors in this volume are William Twining (Emeritus Quain Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London), David Eagleman (Director, Initiative on Neuroscience and Law), Hassane Cisse (Deputy General Counsel, The World Bank), Gabrielle Marceau (Counsellor, World Trade Organisation), Benjamin Odoki (Chief Justice, Republic of Uganda), Martijn W. Scheltema (Attorney at law, Pels Rijcken and Droogleever Fortuijn), Austin Onuoha (Founder, The Africa Centre for Corporate Responsibility), Lokke Moerel (Partner, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek), S.I. Strong (Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution), Jan M. Smits (Chair of European Private Law, Maastricht University).

America is a nation founded on justice and the rule of law. But our laws are too complex, and legal advice too expensive, for poor and even middle-class Americans to get help and vindicate their rights. Criminal defendants facing jail time may receive an appointed lawyer who is juggling hundreds of cases and immediately urges them to plead guilty. Civil litigants are even worse off; usually, they get no help at all navigating the maze of technical procedures and rules. The same is true of those seeking legal advice, like planning a will or negotiating an employment contract. Rebooting Justice presents a novel response to longstanding problems. The answer is to use technology and procedural innovation to simplify and change the process itself. In the civil and criminal courts where ordinary Americans appear the most, we should streamline complex procedures and assume that parties will not have a lawyer, rather than the other way around. We need a cheaper, simpler, faster justice system to control costs. We cannot untie the Gordian knot by adding more strands of rope; we need to cut it, to simplify it.

The author of "Black Hills/White Justice" offers an inside look at the most secretive institution in the American government--the Supreme Court. of photos.

A series of essays examines future trends in various areas of criminal justice, including juvenile justice, sex offenses, proactive policing, probation, planning in 'sunbelt' States, and the insanity defense. The opening essay evaluates values affecting the American criminal justice system, considers the impact of future value issues, and recommends an approach for establishing justice as a perceived value in American society and particularly the criminal justice system, while the second essay draws lessons for the future of American justice from the experiences of ancient Corinth, Sparta and Athens. Issues requiring proactive criminal justice planning in the sunbelt States are identified and discussed in the third essay, followed by a paper that predicts decriminalization of sex laws relating to prostitution, homosexual acts, adultery, and fornication and a retention of laws protecting children, proscribing forced violent sex, and prohibiting sex acts that are a serious public nuisance. Another essay portrays future policing as being proactive with an orientation toward helping structure communities and guide citizen behavior so as to prevent crime. An argument for the professionalization of police advocates academic and training experience that stimulates the learner to self-examination and provides a sound practicum experience that links classroom and professional experience. A discussion of probation considers issues in organizational development and issues relating to roles in the organization, organizational procedures, relationships in the organization, and organizational structure. A scenario for the future of the juvenile justice system views it as becoming obsolete as Supreme Court due process mandates make it an unnecessary replica of adult criminal justice processing. The concluding essay presents the current status of the insanity defense and suggests an alternative approach: the doctrine of diminished or partial responsibility. References and footnotes accompany each essay.