International Issues and Domestic Criminal Defense: A Guide For Practitioners

One of the ways to heighten student and faculty interest in international, comparative and cross-cultural legal issues is to examine those issues through the lens of traditional domestic topics. Nothing seems more “local” than criminal defense. The newly published Second Edition of “Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense,” edited by Linda Friedman Ramirez, an attorney in Florida, should put that assumption of locality to rest. The book is an off-the-shelf guide for practitioners, which the publisher describes as follows:

Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense is an indispensable book for the criminal defense lawyer representing people from other cultures, nationalities or ethnic backgrounds. Lawyers defending these individuals face a host of characteristic concerns that include cultural barriers to communication, the need for qualified interpreters, unique Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues, cultural defenses, issues involving Native Americans, the immigration consequences of a conviction, and distinctive sentencing issues. Packed with practice tips and helpful precedent cases, Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense is the only book on the market that walks the practitioner through these issues in a clear, comprehensive and systematic way.

A clear implication of a book for criminal defense lawyers on this topic is the need for training and guidance for local, state and federal prosecutors on cross-cultural and international law issues. Are any of our readers aware of publications — internally distributed or otherwise — that look at these issues from a prosecution perspective?

(Hat tip to Mark Warren, who contributed a chapter to the book addressing international law and criminal defense and who has played an important role on the advocacy side of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations cases challenging death sentences in the U.S., a phenomenon I described in this article.)