Over the past few years, public attention focused on the Jian Ghomeshi trial, the failings of Judge Greg Lenehan in the Halifax taxi driver case, and the judicial disciplinary proceedings against former Justice Robin Camp have placed the sexual assault trial process under significant scrutiny. Less than one percent of the sexual assaults that occur each year in Canada result in legal sanction for those who commit these offences. Survivors often distrust and fear the criminal justice process, and as a result, over ninety percent of sexual assaults go unreported. Unfortunately, their fears are well founded. In this thorough evaluation of the legal culture and courtroom practices prevalent in sexual assault prosecutions, Elaine Craig provides an even-handed account of the ways in which the legal profession unnecessarily – and sometimes unlawfully – contributes to the trauma and re-victimization experienced by those who testify as sexual assault complainants. Gathering conclusive evidence from interviews with experienced lawyers across Canada, reported case law, lawyer memoirs, recent trial transcripts, and defence lawyers’ public statements and commercial advertisements, Putting Trials on Trial demonstrates that – despite prominent contestations – complainants are regularly subjected to abusive, humiliating, and discriminatory treatment when they turn to the law to respond to sexual violations. In pursuit of trial practices that are less harmful to sexual assault complainants as well as survivors of sexual violence more broadly, Putting Trials on Trial makes serious, substantiated, and necessary claims about the ethical and cultural failures of the Canadian legal profession.

Elaine Craig is professor of law, Dalhousie University, and the author of Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession and Troubling Sex: Towards a Legal Theory of Sexual Integrity.

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"Putting Trials on Trial is a riveting exposé of criminal defence lawyers who regularly engage in aggressive and humiliating cross-examination, of Crown attorneys who fail to meet their duties to complainants, and of judges who fail to intervene to prevent abusive cross-examination and who fail to properly apply substantive law. It is a must-read for those who seek to change the way that sexual assault law is practised and adjudicated." The Honourable Marie Corbett, author of January: A Woman Judge's Season of Disillusion

"This spectacular, thoughtful, and hard-hitting book pushes all of us to reconsider the impact of trials on those caught up in the justice system. Elaine Craig has done us all a service. This is the most important book you'll see this year." Clayton Ruby,

"Many of us struggle to understand what is going so disastrously wrong with sexual assault trials. For everyone who is distraught about this, and more so for those who are not, this book is a must read. Elaine Craig brilliantly interrogates how defence la

"A damning account of what goes on in Canadian courtrooms, filled with outrageous examples of misconduct by legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors, and defence lawyers. Craig has proven in this book what many women knew to be true already: sex

"Dalhousie law professor Craig's impeccably researched book is an outstanding work that dovetails perfectly with the #MeToo movement. Craig skewers the still prevalent notion that Canadian sexual assault survivors enjoy a free pass in the courts. Combinin

"This thorough and convincing book should be required reading for students and practitioners of criminal law and for the law societies that govern professional conduct. It will be a useful resource for feminists concerned about the treatment of women in s