Abstract
This Note analyzes the learning objectives, casebook readings, and supplemental sources that thirteen criminal law professors assigned over fifteen years and argues that the current approach to teaching criminal law is complicit in perpetuating the injustices of the American criminal legal system because it fails to adequately interrogate the carceral state and does not prepare students to become ethical practitioners or policymakers of criminal law. This paper calls for a fundamental rethinking of the purpose of teaching criminal law and recommends a reform orientation, which could be implemented through a variety of course structures.
Recommended Citation
Robin Peterson,
The Complicit Canon of Criminal Law: A Critical Survey of Syllabi, Casebooks, and Supplemental Materials,
57
U. Mich. J. L. Reform
565
(2024).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol57/iss3/2