Open research questions in Criminal Law and Evidence

What the literature leaves open

• However, public perspectives on whether law enforcement should be granted access to this information is understudied.

  Should the police use genetic genealogy databases to assist in solving crime? Survey among university students · 2025 · DOI

• To prevent the expansive discretion and overbreadth characteristic of general warrants, this Article proposes a tripartite standard requiring that geofence warrants be limited to the scope of probable cause, confined to a narrow temporal window, and restricted to a geographic area closely tied to the alleged crime.

  The Fourth Amendment and Geofence Warrants: Safeguarding Geofencing's Constitutionality Through Particularity and Reasonableness · 2026

• The current model does not account for situations requiring immediate response. There is a gap between the formal initiation of criminal proceedings and the practical actions taken.

  Ensuring the legality of urgent investigative (search) actions prior to the entry of information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations: practical aspects and risks of evidence being ruled inadmissible · 2026 · DOI

• Ensuring the effective implementation of the principle of presumption of innocence is a challenge. The People’s Procuracy must balance its role in exercising prosecutorial power with the need to protect human dignity and fundamental rights.

  Prosecutorial responsibility and the presumption of innocence in the legal philosophy of the modern rule of law state · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should focus on implementing the proposed reforms. Further studies should examine the effectiveness of the reforms in strengthening prosecutorial accountability.

  Prosecutorial responsibility and the presumption of innocence in the legal philosophy of the modern rule of law state · 2026 · DOI

• The complexity of the legal framework may make it difficult to clarify the prosecutor's role in the review procedure. The lack of clear guidelines may lead to confusion and inconsistencies in the application of the law.

  Legal status of the prosecutor in the review procedure of criminal cases · 2026 · DOI

• The current legislation does not provide clear guidelines for the prosecutor's role in the review procedure. The exclusion of the prosecutor's attributions and obligations by Law No. 246/2023 may have created gaps in the legislative framework.

  Legal status of the prosecutor in the review procedure of criminal cases · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the literature, as the logic of ω-sequence semantics has never been explored. The paper aims to fill this gap by axiomatizing the logic of ω-sequence semantics and exploring its properties and implications.

  Sequence and consequence · 2026 · DOI

• There is a lack of understanding of the factors that influence prosecutorial decision-making practices related to plea bargaining strategies involving case dismissal. Prior research has focused on the importance of legal factors in criminal court outcomes, but there is a need to explore the role of extra-legal factors.

  Legal and Extra-legal Determinants of Prosecutorial Case Dismissal: Plea Agreements, Deferred Adjudication, and Pretrial Diversion · 2026 · DOI

• Although the practical benefits of forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) in criminal investigations remain unclear, this emerging forensic technology is the subject of increasing interest from various European stakeholders.

  Forensic DNA phenotyping: Privacy breach, bias reification and the pitfalls of abstract assessments of rights · 2023 · DOI

• To address this gap in the literature and to inform policy regarding rape kit testing, we randomly sampled 700 previously untested SAKs from Detroit, MI: 350 were presumed to be beyond the SOL for prosecution (based on the date the SAK was collected), and 350 were still within the SOL.

  Developing Empirically Informed Policies for Sexual Assault Kit DNA Testing: Is It Too Late to Test Kits Beyond the Statute of Limitations? · 2016 · DOI

• The institutional design of the prosecutorial organ varies across time and across countries, which raises an important, yet quite understudied question: Does institutional design matter for how states respond to human rights violations and, if so, how? In this article, I develop a theoretical framework that highlights the importance of prosecutorial independence and prosecutorial accountability.

  The role of prosecutorial independence and prosecutorial accountability in domestic human rights trials · 2015 · DOI

• Finally, Part IV concludes that each of these alternatives is insufficient to cover the wrongfully acquitted in any meaningful way, and more importantly, are an end run around a historically valuable constitutional right enjoyed by defendants.

  The Double Jeopardy Clause, Newly Discovered Evidence, and an "Unofficial" Exception to Double Jeopardy: A Comparative International Perspective · 2013

• The Law Commission's Report left several issues concerning the admissibility of confessions in the context of its proposed hearsay regime unclear, some of which have not yet been clarified by the post-2003 Act jurisprudence.

  Confessions and the Criminal Justice Act 2003 · 2013 · DOI

• A prosecutor cannot reindict a defendant for the after an appellate finding of insufficient evidence,'10 but a prosecutor can reindict a defendant for the after a mistrial based upon manifest necessity when the evidence presented was equally insufficient.

  Successive Prosecutions and Compound Criminal Statutes: A Functional Test · 1998

• After the fifth inquiry into the case, a Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) appeals panel concluded in June 1996 that the evidence against Imanishi-Kari was insufficient prove that she had intentionally and deliberately fabricated and falsified experimental data and results support a published paper whose scientific accuracy had been questioned.

  At Law: Giving Scientists Their Due The Imanishi-Kari Decision · 1997 · DOI

• Where possible, future research should examine the relative influence of uncertainty avoidance and the scarce resource hypothesis. The lack of research on prosecutorial screening decisions, as well as differences in statistical analysis, may account for the contradictory findings over the role gender plays in the exercise of judicial discretion at sentencing.

  CRIMINALITY, PROSECUTORIAL SCREENING, AND UNCERTAINTY: TOWARD A THEORY OF DISCRETIONARY DECISION MAKING IN FELONY CASE PROCESSINGS · 1986 · DOI

• The need for an independent prosecution service. The lack of time limits in preliminary proceedings. The need for provision as to costs in criminal cases.

  Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 · 1986 · DOI

• It highlights the need to examine the relationship between political trials and the rule of law.

  What is a political trial? · 1986 · DOI

• There is a lack of comparison between the laws of the United States, England, and Scotland regarding detention short of arrest for questioning. The study aims to fill this gap.

  Detention Short of Arrest for Questioning: The United States, England, and Scotland · 1986 · DOI

• The issue of ensuring judicial control over the extension of the pre-trial investigation period until the person is notified of the suspicion. The consequences of its cancellation.

  SOME ASPECTS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LEGAL REGULATION OF THE EXTENSION OF PRE-TRIAL INVESTIGATION PERIODS UNTIL THE NOTIFICATION OF A PERSON ABOUT SUSPICION · 2023 · DOI

• Finding no standard, the author reviews survey results on what constitutes common practice among forensic evaluators as to when litigants should be retested with the MMPI-2.

  When are MMPI-2 Test Results Considered “Outdated” For Use in a Child Custody Case? · 2012 · DOI

• While its precise wording and interpretation vary widely across jurisdictions,(4) the gist of the no-contact rule remains the same in virtually every state: unless permitted by opposing counsel or authorized by law, ex parte contact with a represented person about the subject of that representation is strictly forbidden.

  Prosecutorial ethics under the Reno rule: Authorized by law? · 1995 · DOI

• Taking this gap in the literature as our starting point, and flagging an emerging debate in the ICC as to whether the ICC Statute envisages a ‘pre-preliminary examination’ stage at all, this article examines the law and policy which governs the opening of an ICC preliminary examination and makes the case for further critical discussion about how actions by the Prosecutor and the Court at this early stage…

  Lifting the Curtain · 2018 · DOI

• Further analysis of the grand jury system and its impact on due process rights. Comparison of the use of the grand jury system across different administrations.

  The American Grand Jury — Due Process or Rights Regress? · 1987 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Criminal Law and Evidence

• Trial by Mathematics: Precision and Ritual in the Legal Process · Harvard Law Review · 1971 · 388 citations
• Police-induced confessions: Risk factors and recommendations. · Law and Human Behavior · 2009 · 383 citations
• Improving eyewitness identifications from lineups: Simultaneous versus sequential lineup presentation. · Journal of Applied Psychology · 1985 · 348 citations
• Form and Substance in Private Law Adjudication · Harvard Law Review · 1976 · 339 citations
• Fugitive Justice · Representations · 2005 · 303 citations
• On the Psychology of Confessions: Does Innocence Put Innocents at Risk? · American Psychologist · 2005 · 269 citations
• Prosecutorial Discretion: The Effects of Uncertainty · Law & Society Review · 1987 · 240 citations
• The Vanishing Trial: An Examination of Trials and Related Matters in Federal and State Courts · Journal of Empirical Legal Studies · 2004 · 232 citations
• The Daubert/Kumho Implications of Observer Effects in Forensic Science: Hidden Problems of Expectation and Suggestion · California Law Review · 2002 · 218 citations
• Policy and procedure recommendations for the collection and preservation of eyewitness identification evidence. · Law and Human Behavior · 2020 · 205 citations

Most recent work

• Ethical Ontology, Volume II — Title-Location Collateral Audit Protocol V1: A Secondary, Separately Registered Audit Applied to the Registered Episode Sample · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• Digital Will Execution: The s.9 Checklist — the formalities of will execution, the recurring failure points, and why a will cannot yet be executed digitally in England and Wales · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• Similar, but Not the Same – Personal Perception and Covert Surveillance and Tracking Through The Prism of Legal Regulations, Practical Implementation And Case-Law in Slovenia · Medicine, Law & Society · 2026
• Ensuring the legality of urgent investigative (search) actions prior to the entry of information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations: practical aspects and risks of evidence being ruled inadmissible · Прикарпатський юридичний вісник · 2026
• Prosecutorial responsibility and the presumption of innocence in the legal philosophy of the modern rule of law state · Aufklärung: Journal of Philosophy · 2026
• 250 Years of Judicial Warrants: The Exceptions That Prove the Rule · Social Education · 2026
• Front‐Footed Defense: Leveraging Early Counsel Intervention for Expedited Justice · Law & Policy · 2026
• The conceptualisation of ‘procedural justice’ for victims and defendants: Different strokes for similar folks? · International Review of Victimology · 2026
• “Cerberus at the Gate”: The Fundamental Connection between Prosecutorial Discretion and Justice · Criminal Justice Ethics · 2026
• Explicit specification of the prior probability of the prosecutor’s hypothesis in Bayesian networks · Law Probability and Risk · 2026

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