The Constitution and Criminal Procedure : First Principles

Under the banners of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, the Supreme Court has constitutionalized vast areas of criminal procedure law in ways that often reward the guilty while hurting the innocent. The author of this provocative book, a distinguished constitutional scholar, here reconceptualizes the basic foundations of the criminal procedure field.

"The Constitution and Criminal Procedure" is a vivid and provocative book -- an unlikely mixture of old-fashioned textual inquiry and deeply felt constitutional populism. This book should help invigorate modern debate over the rights of criminals and the rights of the people as a whole". -- Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago Law School

"Akhil Amar is the most creative legal scholar of his generation. In this path-breaking book, he proposes to reconstruct the entire discipline of constitutional criminal procedure from the ground up. Even those who are inclined to resist his daring conclusions cannot ignore his dazzling intellectual achievement". -- Jeffrey Rosen, Legal Affairs Editor, The New Republic

"A provocative and often brilliant book....an abstract architectural plan against which to evaluate today's imperfect reality of criminal justice". -- Alan Dershowitz, Slate