Book excerpt: Adopting a comparative approach, The Metamorphosis of Criminal Justice looks at the ways that criminal justice trends in Britain and in France, as well as those rooted in European human rights instruments, have influenced the core roles of criminal justice actors and the everyday functioning of the criminal process in courts and police stations. It analyzes adversarial and inquisitorial traditions, their representation in contemporary criminal justice in Britain and in France, and how the increased politicization of criminal justice has eroded fundamental rights in the name of efficiency and security.