Source: (2007) Marquette Law Review. 91(1): 1-8.
This issue of the Marquette Law Review features papers presented at the Marquette Law School Conference on Plea
Bargaining on April 14, 2007. … Although we believe that criminal law and dispute resolution scholars have much to
learn from one another, plea bargaining is undoubtedly a unique form of dispute resolution, and any attempt to apply the
generic lessons of negotiation theory to criminal law must be undertaken with great care. … Moreover, the increasingly
robust role played by victims in the criminal justice system further undermines the practical significance of the stateversus-
citizen structure of criminal disputes and adds a new dimension to the agency problems. … Professor Richard
Birke’s article builds on his earlier pathbreaking work that first recognized the contradiction between theories based on
cognitive psychology about when parties should “rationally” settle and the reality of what was actually occurring in plea
bargaining. … In his article, Professor Michael O’Hear discusses the potential benefits of victim participation in plea
bargaining and proposes a new model for victim participation structured around transparent charging and bargaining
guidelines for prosecutors (Author’s abstract).
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