White Center Holds National Conference on Interrogation Law
A group of national experts on criminal procedure convened in Boulder on October 20-21, 2006, to discuss the past, present, and future of interrogation law. The “Cautions and Confessions: Miranda v. Arizona After 40 Years” conference, which took place in the new Wolf Law Building, showcased the interdisciplinary perspectives of legal scholars, historians, sociologists, and judges. The conference was sponsored by the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law and organized by Professor Carolyn Ramsey of the University of Colorado Law School and Professor Bruce Smith of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law.
On October 20, Professor Yale Kamisar of the University of Michigan Law School and the University of San Diego School of Law began the conference with a thoughtful keynote address on Miranda’s origins and meaning. Then, a series of formal, scholarly panels featured papers on the history of warnings and incommunicado questioning, the doctrinal and policy limits of the Miranda decision, and the international dimensions of interrogation law. The day ended with a lively roundtable discussion of videotaping and other measures for reforming police practices in the future.
Invited speakers returned to campus on October 21 for two informal seminars. The first seminar explored coercive interrogation techniques including religiously-based tactics that seemed to necessitate the Miranda decision. The second seminar focused on the modern problems of false confessions and the interrogation of terrorism suspects.
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| Professor Yale Kamisar giving his keynote address on Miranda?s origins and meaning. |
