Rate My Professor Malcolm Feeley

Feeley's research centers on the criminal process, courts and social policy, federalism, prison reform, and historical studies of crime and punishment. Among his influential publications are The Process is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Court (Russell Sage Foundation, 1979; winner of the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award in 1980 and American Sociological Association Outstanding Book Award in 1985), Court Reform on Trial: Why Simple Solutions Fail (Basic Books, 1983), Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America’s Prisons (with Edward Rubin, Cambridge University Press, 1998), and Federalism: Political Identity and Tragic Choice (with Edward Rubin, University of Michigan Press, 2008). He has edited volumes such as Power Divided: Studies in Federalism (1989) and Fighting for Political Freedom (with Terry Halliday and Lucien Karpik, 2008). Feeley received the Harry Kalven Lifetime Achievement Award in Law and Social Science from the Law and Society Association in 2015, served as President of the Law and Society Association from 2005 to 2007, and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020. A conference honoring his work was held at UC Berkeley in 2015. His scholarship has profoundly shaped understandings of criminal justice processes, court reform, and federalism in the legal academy.