Welcome to the Moritz College of Law, Criminal Law with Professor Douglas Berman, and version 11.0 of this class blog

Get excited about starting a new school and a new class that uses an old technology!

I am so very pleased to welcome you the the Moritz College of Law and to introduce you to the legal field of Criminal Law.  And because the technology has served me quite well for nearly two decades, I remain a big fan of law blogs and continue to make a habit of using various blogs to support my instruction in various law school classes.  I have found that blogs (over a law-school-support technology like TWEN or course software like CARMEN) provide an especially useful and distinctive on-line tool for supplementing my courses and for encouraging students to engage with "public" questioning and commentary (and to see how prior generations of law students engaged with these materials).

So, I will continue as an old dog with old technology tricks in the Fall 2023 semester at the Moritz College of Law by using this blog in our first-semester 1L Criminal Law course.  As the "version 11.0" label in the title of this post highlights, I have built this "new" blog directly atop the blog I have used when teaching this same course nine times before (in Fall 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022) and also when teaching a Comparative Criminal Procedure course (in Summer 2012 as part of our great Oxford summer program).  I am hopeful that new 1Ls will benefit from — or at least find reassuring — seeing some of the posts and comments that were generated in this space in years gone by via these archives.

So, welcome to the latest re-launch of this 1L Crim Law blogging adventure.  I am always pleased when this blog helps to promote a distinct type of student engagement, and it will provide another means for me to share required and optional materials and ideas.

WELCOME!

Getting us started, I am here posting electronic copies of the basic course documents and our assignment for the first week of class (which also appears in the same form on our CarmenCanvas class page).

 

In preparation for our first class on Monday, August 21, you should:

1.  Obtain a copy of Kaplan, Weisberg and Binder, Criminal Law (9th ed. 2021)

2.  Obtain a copy of the course description and the course syllabus, which will be available by August 16 in front of my office (Room 313), and on the course website (linked hereLinks to an external site.), and in the FILES tab in our CarmenCanvas class webpage.

3.  Read the casebook's Introduction quickly and pages 19-25, 29-32, and 589-595 closely. Because the next set of readings provide theoretical background, and because they can and should be read VERY quickly and should enhance your appreciation of our initial discussions, I encourage you also to SKIM the readings from pages 32‑70 in the text as soon as possible.

Download 2023 Course description

Download 2023 Crim Law syllabus