Judicial Supervision of Criminal Law Administration

Abstract

The legal profession's preoccupation with needed reforms in civil procedure has obscured an equally urgent need for improve ments in the administration of criminal justice. Judges have an opportunity and a responsibility to secure reforms in management of the criminal calendar, application of pretrial discovery and pretrial conference procedures, police investigatory and arrest practices, administration of bail, acceptance of guilty pleas, ap pointment of counsel, and postconviction procedures. The trend is toward enlargement of the judicial supervisory role; perhaps it will take us to the ultimate mechanism of criminal administra tion-a Ministry of Justice.