This collection discusses the concept of ‘poor-quality’ criminal defence representation and assistance, so-termed ‘poor lawyering’. It does so from diverse perspectives, including legal and criminological. The work presents an overview of the issue of the quality of legal assistance in criminal proceedings, so allowing a better understanding of the potential limits and problems. The volume is divided into three parts which, over fourteen chapters, offer analyses of poor lawyering across: national and supranational legal systems, including, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, England & Wales, the United States and the European Court of Human Rights; the specific challenges of poor lawyering, such as, regulation of counsel before the International Criminal Court, through codes of conduct, and in cross-border proceedings within Europe; the individual fault and external pressures of criminal defence lawyers; the ‘missed opportunity’ of pre-charge engagement; the importance of insights from legal and criminological psychology; and the role of neurodivergent defendants in the adaptation of the defence lawyer’s assistance. The collection concludes with a transversal and comparative analysis of the effectiveness of defence and the independence of lawyers. With contributions from academics and practitioners from a range of backgrounds, the book will be a valuable resource for students, academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the area of Criminal Justice.

Ashlee Beazley is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC), KU Leuven. She holds a PhD from the KU Leuven where she defended her thesis on ‘Poor Lawyering: A Comparative Study of the Quality of Criminal Defence Assistance in England and Belgium’ in 2023. Her research interests include comparative criminal law and procedure, European criminal law, legal history, legal ethics, and of course, defence and fair trial rights.

Michele Panzavolta is Associate Professor of Criminal Law at the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC), KU Leuven. He has academic experience in different countries and has worked as a criminal attorney and as a parliamentary consultant. He specialises in European and comparative criminal law and procedure, with a particular focus on the protection of individual rights in criminal matters. His main research interests are in judicial cooperation and procedural rights, evidence, intelligence-related topics, financial crime and asset recovery, and cybercrime.

Andrew Sanders is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick. He was Head of Warwick’s School of Law from January 2019 to June 2022. He was formerly Head of the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex from 2015 to 2019. He has previously worked at the University of Bristol, University of Manchester and University of Birmingham. At both Birmingham and Manchester he was Head of Department for several years. He researches in the area of criminal justice: prosecutions, suspects rights, police powers, courts, and victims of crime.