Hearing on Stolen or Counterfeit Goods Legislation

Abstract

On March 28, 2012, Professor Dervan was called to testify before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security (Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives) and offer his thoughts regarding proposed counterfeit goods legislation (The Safe Doses Act (H.R. 4223) and the Counterfeit Drug Penalty Enhancement Act of 2011 (H.R. 3668)). In his prepared statement, Professor Dervan examines the phenomenon of overcriminalization, the collapse of mens rea, the true impact of increased statutory maximums, plea bargaining, and the continued deterioration of our constitutionally protected right to trial by jury. His closing remarks to the Committee offer a poignant critique of modern-day criminal legislative practices and challenges us to consider this question: “As overcriminalization continues to create the incentives that make plea bargaining so prevalent and powerful, we must ask ourselves as a country what constitutional price is being paid when, even though we act with good and noble intentions, we create yet another law or increase yet another statutory maximum where is it not absolutely necessity to achieve our goals.”

Keywords: Counterfeit Goods, Legislation, Congressional Testimony, Overcriminalization, Statutory Maximums, Plea Bargaining

JEL Classification: K10, K14, K20, K22