Legal Commentary

Cardozo Law Professor Marci Hamilton--author of God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge U. Press 2005)--has a new book. In Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge U. Press 2008), Hamilton argues forcefully that statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse should be abolished. Such a move would serve, she suggests, four policy goals. First, it would place the interests of childhood sexual abuse survivors above the legal rights of offenders. Second, it would help to identify sexual predators. Third, it would facilitate the identification of other survivors of the same predator once a single survivor has come forward. Fourth, it would discourage insitutions from hiding sexual abuse. The abolition of statues of limitation in the context of clergy sexual abuse has been a hotly contested issue in state legislatures throughout the country. Hamilton's book is timely and a must read for those interested in this issue.