Introduction – The Changed and Changing World of Constitutional Criminal Procedure: The Contribution of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy

The world of constitutional criminal procedure is changing slowly. Repudiating much of the thinking that led to the existing world, the changes are being driven by arguments that share common ground with those expressed in the Office of Legal Policy Reports. The unanswered question is whether tomorrow’s changes will mirror the logical ramifications of this new way of thinking. What we cannot know today, as we ponder these Reports, is whether twenty years hence, as a new generation of law students begin to study our endeavors, the mistakes of the 1960s will be little more than “cold history.” Whatever our society does in the years ahead, the Office of Legal Policy and the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform have rendered a significant contribution by entering the debate and by showing us that we do have a rather clear choice.