Management
Criminal Law, Procedure, and Evidence
The American sense of liberty and individual rights springs from the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These documents provide the guidelines for all federal, state, and local laws; they guarantee that the United States will remain a nation governed by the rule of law. They also balance society’s need to achieve social control, order, and safety against the individual’s right to life, liberty, and property. Although, as Americans, we are aware that we have certain rights, we often take them for granted. At work, school, and other endeav- ors, we generally expect to be treated fairly and equally. However, when we become the subject of a government investigation or the accused in a criminal prosecution, our rights become paramount in our minds, and we fully appreciate their crucial importance and the need for an impartial criminal justice system.
The values of freedom and individual rights emerged early in our nation’s history and traditions, and Americans have internalized what Thomas Jefferson expressed in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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