Substantive criminal law issues often dominate public discourse. Yet The Georgetown Law Journal’s Annual Review of Criminal Procedure (ARCP) is a must-read for prosecutors and defense attorneys, judges and law clerks, and even incarcerated people working on their own defenses or appeals. Over eleven thousand copies of the ARCP are distributed annually. Its famous footnotes, updated every year by law students, describe federal criminal procedure across the country, with information spanning hundreds of pages. And unlike most law review footnotes, these ones are important. What gives?

Many practitioners realize the truth—procedural rules play an equal, if not greater, role in criminal law. Procedural rules are important tools that shape how we administer justice in our legal system—so much so that addressing their evolution in painstaking detail remains in high demand year after year by readers of the ARCP. Procedural rules mold societal definitions of fairness. They guide the way the public interacts with our criminal justice system. They define courtroom advocacy. And when they are fashioned and applied in a fair manner, they support our democratic culture.

Continue reading the 54th Preface.