Amanda Knox's murder trial is reportedly a good case study on the need to understand the "underlying" cultural differences between the legal system of the US and Italy.

John W. Head, Robert W. Wagstaff Distinguished Professor of Law at KU, published an article on special journal to mark the 70th birthday of Feridun Yenisey, giving his opinion on Amanda Knox's murder case.

In his article, as reported by the Kansas University website, Head warned about the dangers of making broad conclusions about the legal system in Italy by comparing it with the US.

He wrote: "If someone is going to offer broad criticisms of an entire legal and criminal justice system, they ought to at least have an understanding of the culture of the country and its legal system. I doubt that was the case with most of the people who were offering the loudest criticisms in the Amanda Knox trial."

The Amanda Knox murder case trial piqued his interest because when he was in Italy, he worked on a comparative law course book.

"One of the angles I was working on was comparing criminal procedures in Europe, the United States and China. So this case and all the attention it was getting really grabbed my interest," he said.

Among the complexities in the Amanda Knox murder case was when the Italian jury wasn't reportedly sequestered, a concept that is foreign to the American justice system. Then there's also the overtly aggressive Italian prosecutor and that defense "was not ready for that, especially without an equally aggressive defense."

Then there's the media frenzy surrounding the whole murder case trial for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, "which placed a strain on the legal system as well."

"I think we simply miss a lot because we don't pay close enough attention to the underlying cultural differences between legal systems and especially nations," he added. "Unfortunately, our response is often inadequate because of that."