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 for- mer 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 as- saults 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 unlaw- fully – contributes to the trauma and re-victimiza- tion experienced by those who testify as sexual assault complainants. Gathering conclusive evi- dence 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 promi- nent contestations – complainants are regularly subjected to abusive, humiliating, and discrimina- tory treatment when they turn to the law to re- spond 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. “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 “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 lawyers, Crown attorneys, professional regulatory bodies, state-funded legal counsel, and judges contribute to the mess we find ourselves in and what we must do to change it.” Constance Backhouse, University of Ottawa, and author of Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900–1975 Elaine Craig is associate professor in the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. 3 M Q U P S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 L A W • W O M E N ’ S S T U D I E S Putting Trials on Trial Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession elaine craig An interrogation of sexual assault law and a legal process that traumatizes complainants. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S March 2018 978-0-7735-5277-7 $34.95T CDN, $34.95A US, £28.99 cloth 6 x 9 328pp eBook available