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Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Changes to Criminal Law course (advice welcome!)
This Fall will be (I think) the 17th time I've taught the first-year Criminal Law course. (At Notre Dame, the class is sometimes in the Fall, and sometimes in the Spring. For what it's worth, I strongly prefer the Fall.) The course and assignments have evolved over the years (for example, for the first few years, I didn't teach any of the sexual-assault materials) but, at the same time, I cannot pretend to have made any dramatic overhauls for a while.
This year, I've made a few changes to the Download Criminal Law Syllabus (Fall 2024), though, and I'd welcome feedback about them. In particular, I added coverage, in the actual-crimes section, of theft (larceny) and possession (drugs and guns) to criminal homicide and sexual assault (and cut down on necessity and duress). And (with regret), I dropped a requirement I have often used that students read a scholarly monograph on criminal-law-related policy/reform (in addition to the casebook stuff). In the past, I've used books by Rachel Barkow, Stephanos Bibas, John Pfaff, and others. But, I decided this year that this requirement was possibly introducing excessive varation (and workload differences) among our three sections. Sigh.
Posted by Rick Garnett on August 13, 2024 at 02:48 PM in Criminal Law, Rick Garnett | Permalink
Comments
J.M.J.
And last, but not least, America’s best lawyers defending Religious Liberty and thus our inherent Right to be Truly Compassionate:
Rice-Hasson Distinguished Lecture Series | Program on Church, State & Society | University of Notre Dame
Kevin "Seamus" Hasson - Becket
Posted by: ND | Aug 21, 2024 12:47:38 PM
Perhaps to complete this thorough and ambitious syllabus , since Time is of the essence, you would consider addressing the issue of the current trend of some prosecutors to criminalize compassion, as a guise to undermine Religious Liberty, making it appear as if authentic compassion could serve to undermine The Common Good, and should be considered a criminal offense.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/08/19/american-jews-confront-the-catholic-problem/
As Religious Persecution Rises in the West, America Must Remain a Beacon of Hope - News - First Liberty
https://religiousliberty.nd.edu/
Posted by: ND | Aug 21, 2024 12:26:41 PM
Hi Professor Garnett,
This course sounds wonderful! I wish I was a Law Student so I could sign up to take this course!
This is just a suggestion, as I am currently reading “Reflection ‘s On The Psalms”, by C.S. Lewis, and I believe it would be a great addition to your book list, and would help illuminate how The Spirit Of The Law serves for The Common Good🙏
Godspeed to all who travel here💕
Posted by: ND | Aug 16, 2024 2:30:50 PM
There are two footnote 4's.
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 15, 2024 8:34:01 AM
I am only an occasional 1L crim prof, but I have really enjoyed adding crimes like theft, robbery, burglary, assault, and possession to my class. Those crimes are very useful to know; they can be learned very quickly; students appreciate learning a larger set of crimes; and they show students that new crimes are often combinations of the elements of other crimes they have studied. Adding crimes also has the distinct benefit of making it easier to write new exam questions, as you can test variations of different crimes (like a conspiracy to commit a theft, an attempt to commit burglary, etc.) It's worked for me, at least.
Posted by: Orin Kerr | Aug 13, 2024 4:52:08 PM
That is a long and ambitious syllabus. I'd want an A just for reading it.
Posted by: shg | Aug 13, 2024 3:27:33 PM