Criminal Procedure Sponsored by Criminal Law

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Session Type: Section Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside

Room: Camp

Floor: Third Floor

Policing is often portrayed as the State’s quintessential function, yet the authority to police has never rested solely with sworn officers. From colonial “watch” schemes funded by merchants to today’s contracts with data-analytics firms, coercive power is continually delegated, contracted, and—at moments of upheaval—abandoned. Treating these transfers not as anomalies but as windows onto the legal construction of authority, this panel asks a deceptively simple question: Who may police? The panel will consider how power is allocated, experienced, and contested. It will consider questions of doctrine, procedural justice, and what happens when the State retreats.