Adversarial Case-Making
An Ethnography of English Crown Court Procedure
Biographical note
Thomas Scheffer led the law-in-action Research Group. Currently he is Heisenberg scholar at the Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He published on communication/ knowledge processes in migration control, social work, parliamentary inquiries, and legal casework. His research interests include micro-sociology, sociology of knowledge, political ethnography, and cultural comparison/translation. Scheffer is spokesperson of the section “sociology of law” in the German Sociological Association.
Readership
All those interested in the workings of law and how legal cases come about through systematic writing, filing, and talking.
Reviews
The book will prove eye-opening for those considering entering the legal profession, either as solicitor or barrister. [...]
Adversarial Case-Making’s ethnographic and micro-sociological methods provide insights that cannot be achieved other than through years of fieldwork and the filing, coding and categorizing of mountains of ethnographic data, such as files, documents, meeting notes, transcripts and archive material.
Reviewed by Lisa Vanhala, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Human Rights
Law & Politics Book Review, 2011, pp. 693-695.
Adversarial Case-Making’s ethnographic and micro-sociological methods provide insights that cannot be achieved other than through years of fieldwork and the filing, coding and categorizing of mountains of ethnographic data, such as files, documents, meeting notes, transcripts and archive material.
Reviewed by Lisa Vanhala, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Human Rights
Law & Politics Book Review, 2011, pp. 693-695.
Table of contents
List of Figures
Foreword
Introduction
On field access
Rendering case-making observable
Outlook
1. A case of assault: The rise and fall of an alibi
The ontological versions of the alibi-story and its analysability
The rise of the alibi
Intermezzo
The story’s decline
Towards the duality of mobilisation
2. Framing law-in-action
Where and when is the field?
Event and process in Social Theory
Eventful process, processed events
Weighing event and process
Outlook: the adversarial procedure as eventful process
3. A case of indecent assault: Fitting sleep-walking expertise in
Interrogating a single case
Expert evidence in criminal proceedings
Sleep-walking expertise and its relevant other knowledges
Discussion: Distributed knowing and judicial decision-making
4. File-work and procedural care
Styles of file-work in a criminal law firm
Good reasons for different styles of file-work
Conclusion: Legal care in context
5. A case of wounding with intent: The barrister’s day in court
Before trial
The barrister’s work during trial
The closing speech
Conclusion: The minutiae of case-representation
6. Procedural resources and procedural infrastructure
The court
The file
The story
Towards procedural infrastructure
7. A case of murder: No regret!
Direct and indirect moralising
The moralising sites in a Crown Court case
Discussion: Characteristics and rationale of indirect moralising
8. The case in the case-system
The case as tripartite sign
Case, fact-sensitive
Case, ruled and ruling
Case, decision-oriented
The archive of the case-system
Off the case: Components in isolation
Conclusion: The micro-foundations of adversarialism
Mechanisms of case-making
Complexities of case-making
Epilogue
References
Index
Foreword
Introduction
On field access
Rendering case-making observable
Outlook
1. A case of assault: The rise and fall of an alibi
The ontological versions of the alibi-story and its analysability
The rise of the alibi
Intermezzo
The story’s decline
Towards the duality of mobilisation
2. Framing law-in-action
Where and when is the field?
Event and process in Social Theory
Eventful process, processed events
Weighing event and process
Outlook: the adversarial procedure as eventful process
3. A case of indecent assault: Fitting sleep-walking expertise in
Interrogating a single case
Expert evidence in criminal proceedings
Sleep-walking expertise and its relevant other knowledges
Discussion: Distributed knowing and judicial decision-making
4. File-work and procedural care
Styles of file-work in a criminal law firm
Good reasons for different styles of file-work
Conclusion: Legal care in context
5. A case of wounding with intent: The barrister’s day in court
Before trial
The barrister’s work during trial
The closing speech
Conclusion: The minutiae of case-representation
6. Procedural resources and procedural infrastructure
The court
The file
The story
Towards procedural infrastructure
7. A case of murder: No regret!
Direct and indirect moralising
The moralising sites in a Crown Court case
Discussion: Characteristics and rationale of indirect moralising
8. The case in the case-system
The case as tripartite sign
Case, fact-sensitive
Case, ruled and ruling
Case, decision-oriented
The archive of the case-system
Off the case: Components in isolation
Conclusion: The micro-foundations of adversarialism
Mechanisms of case-making
Complexities of case-making
Epilogue
References
Index
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