Cornell law professor Joseph Margulies describes how meaningful police reform requires starting at the top and treating the bottom as a social, rather than criminal, problem.

Cornell University law professor Joseph Margulies argues that the goal of meaningful criminal justice reform should be to hold the offender accountable, repair the community, and make the victim whole.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies discusses the tense situation between the police and the community in Baltimore and argues that meaningful reform is on the horizon.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies comments on the recent death of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man whose murder by a police officer was caught on video and seen by the world. Margulies argues that Scott’s murder, while highly unusual and anomalous in some ways, also exemplifies the relationship between law enforcement and black citizens.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies discusses the widespread phenomenon of conversations about criminal justice reform that notably exclude any mention of race.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies discusses the need for meaningful criminal justice reform to include not only prison reform, but also reform of law enforcement.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies discusses the problems that arise when a police force is driven by a push for revenue for the city rather than by public safety needs.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies describes four events last week that received little attention from the media or the public despite their import. Margulies argues that the public’s disinterest in these events reveals the normality of the war on terror.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies comments on the recent FOX News fiasco involving extreme Islamophobic views and the public’s response of ridicule.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies continues his discussion of torture and its place in American politics. Margulies describes how torture gained popularity only after it became a partisan issue, and only after its supporters assembled an argument making its use seem consistent with American values.

In this first of a two-part series of columns, Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies debunks the widespread belief that Americans’ support for torture occurred immediately following the attacks of 9/11. In Part II, Margulies will discuss how support for torture took off only after it became a partisan issue, and an argument took shape that made torture sound congenial to American values.

Cornell University visiting law professor Joseph Margulies discusses the growing role of radical individualism in political culture and how it leads to communities on all sides of the political spectrum not taking responsibility for violence their rhetoric causes.

Guest columnist and Cornell University visiting professor of law Joseph Margulies continues his discussion of the American criminal justice system and describes basic principles upon which we could build superior alternatives to the present system.

Guest columnist and Cornell University visiting professor Joseph Margulies discusses how the Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict reflects the present ideology of American justice. Margulies argues that unless policymakers are willing to change that ideology that pits “us” against “them,” meaningful change will be impossible.

Guest columnist and professor of law and government at Cornell University, Joseph Margulies discusses the use of the term “torture” in American media and the public sphere. Margulies describes the change in language after 9/11 and explains the significance of the word’s return to the public’s vocabulary.

Justia guest columnist and Northwestern law professor Joseph Margulies explains why American criminal justice appears to be coming out of its prior, punitive turn in criminal justice. With even the Attorney General acknowledging that our criminal justice system is, in many ways, broken, Margulies suggests strong evidence that the punitive turn is waning, and may well be superseded with new and better approaches to criminal justice.

Justia guest columnist and Northwestern law professor Joseph Margulies offers an interesting perspective on the controversies raised by the classified information leaked by Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. Margulies asks what it reveals about ourselves and our life and times that Manning and Snowden, two anonymous functionaries in the vast machinery of the American military complex, have—within three years of each other—committed both the largest and apparently most important unauthorized releases of classified material in American history?