Criminal Law

Criminal Law: Concepts, Crimes, and Defenses is a new first-year text structured to facilitate students' comprehensive understanding of criminal law principles, foundational crimes, defenses, and modes of liability. Closely aligned with the coverage of the Multi-State Bar Examination, this book covers the common law foundation of criminal law and important Model Penal Code evolutions of the law. Each chapter is introduced with a summary of the essential aspects of the law followed by carefully edited cases selected from a variety of jurisdictions and concludes with discussion questions and formative assessments. The book includes a number of innovative charts and diagrams to facilitate student understanding of the law and how each topic is implemented in practice.

The book leverages decades of the authors' collective experience in teaching criminal law at a number of institutions and varied criminal law practice as prosecutors, defense counsel, and habeas counsel. Several hundred law students from Cornell University School of Law, the SMU Dedman School of Law, and South Texas College of Law Houston have already "test driven" drafts of the text and provided highly positive feedback.

Teaching materials include power point slides for each class; syllabus/assignment templates; author notes on each chapter including answers and explanations for all formative assessments and discussion questions/problems; proposed learning outcomes, practice mid-term with comprehensive solution, and final exams with model answers.

The full set of 217 PowerPoint slides is available upon adoption. Click here to view a sample presentation. If you are a professor using this book for a class, please contact Rachael Meier at remeier@cap-press.com to request your slides.

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This casebook is meticulously crafted to cover all essential aspects of criminal law. It arranges the materials to foster critical thinking from both the prosecution and defense perspectives. The book includes numerous detailed flowcharts that brilliantly illustrate complex legal doctrines. It adeptly elucidates the elements of criminal statutes to students, maintaining a focus on the overarching burden of the prosecution, and presents stimulating questions to provoke classroom discussions. Additionally, this book is an invaluable resource for junior faculty members or novice criminal law instructors seeking a clear and efficient pedagogical approach to teaching the course.
— Shih-Chun “Steven” Chien, Professor of Law, Cleveland State University School of Law