Stephanos Bibas
Professor of Law and Criminology; Director, Supreme Court Clinic
Stephanos Bibas studies the powers and incentives that shape how prosecutors, defense counsel, defendants, and judges behave in the real world of guilty pleas. His 2004 paper, “Plea Bargaining Outside the Shadow of Trial” (Harvard Law Review), explored the agency costs, structural forces, and psychological biases that cause plea bargaining to deviate from expected trial outcomes.
Expertise
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Law Theory
- Criminal Sentencing
- Law and Criminal Justice
- Social Science and the Law
- Legal Process and Dispute Resolution
Books
THE MACHINERY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE (Oxford Univ. Press 2012)
[Available Here]
Articles and Book Chapters
Plea Bargaining's Role in Wrongful Convictions, in EXAMINING WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS: STEPPING BACK, MOVING FORWARD (Allison D. Redlich et al. eds., Carolina Academic Press, 2014).
Constitutionally Tailoring Punishment, 112 MICH. L. REV 397 (2013) (with Richard A. Bierschbach).
The Duties of Non-Judicial Actors in Ensuring Competent Negotiation, 51 DUQ. L. REV. 625 (2013)
Bulk Misdemeanor Justice, 85 S. CAL. L. REV. POSTSCRIPT 101 (2013).
Shrinking Gideon and Expanding Alternatives to Lawyers, 70 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 1287 (2013).
Justice Kennedy's Sixth Amendment Pragmatism, 44 MCGEORGE L. REV. 211 (2013)
Criminal (In)Justice and Democracy in America, 122 HARV. L. REV. F. 134 (2013).
Notice-and-Comment Sentencing, 96 MINN L. REV. 1 (2012) (with Richard A. Bierschbach).
Incompetent Plea Bargaining and Extrajudicial Reforms, 126 HARV L. REV. 150 (2012).
Neuroprediction, Violence, and the Law: Setting the Stage, 5 NEUROETHICS 67 (2012) (with Thomas Nadelhoffer, Scott Grafton, Kent A. Kiehl, Andrew Mansfield, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong & Michael Gazzaniga).
Taming Negotiated Justice, 122 YALE L. J. ONLINE 35 (2012).
The Myth of the Fully Informed Rational Actor, 31. ST. LOUIS U. PUB. L. REV. 79 (2011).
Two Cheers, Not Three, For Sixth Amendment Originalism, 34 HARV. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 45 (2011).
The Need for Prosecutorial Discretion, 19 TEMP. POL. & CIV. RTS. L REV. 369 (2010).
Prosecutorial Regulation Versus Prosecutorial Accountability, 157 U. PA. L. REV. 959 (2009).
More publications can be found here.
Research Areas
- Criminal Procedure
- Sentencing
- Criminal Law
- Dispute Resolution
Positions
Penn Law – Professor of Law (2006- ) and Criminology (2009- ); Director, Supreme Court Clinic (2009- )
Visiting Associate Professor – University of Chicago (winter/spring 2006), Penn Law (fall 2005)
University of Iowa – Associate Professor (2001-06)
United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York – Assistant U.S. Attorney (1998-2000)
Law Clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court of the United States (1997-98)
Law Clerk to Judge Patrick Higginbotham, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1994-95)
Professional Activities
Merits Brief for Petitioner and Reply Brief and Oral Argument, Vartelas v. Holder, No. 10-1211 (U.S. 2012) (11/16/2004)
Merits Brief Amicus Curiae Invited by the Court and Oral Argument, Tapia v. United States, No. 10-5400 (U.S. 2011)
2011 Jack Wasserman Memorial Award by the American Immigration Lawyers' Association for our successful work on Padilla v. Kentucky (07/03/1905)
Brief in Opposition to Certiorari and Merits Brief for Respondent, Turner v. Rogers, No. 10-10 (U.S. 2011)
Member, Philadelphia Mayor’s Advisory Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform, 2008-09
Courses
- Criminal Procedure: Investigation
- Criminal Procedure: Prosecution and Adjudication
- Legal Imagination: Criminals and Justice Across Literature
- Supreme Court Clinic