Criminal Law Text

 

The text we will be using is Kadish & Schulhofer, Criminal Law and Its Processes: Cases and Materials (7th ed. 2000, ISBN 0-7355-1990-0).

 

Reading Assignments

 

Week

               Read Pages

1 (8/21)

95-156

2 (8/28)

156-202 (plus Lawrence)

3 (9/6)

203-235

4 (9/11)

235-290

5 (9/18)

290-346

6 (9/25)

346-395

7 (10/02)

483-515

8 (10/09)

517-567

9 (10/16)

567-621

10 (10/23)

621-44; 671-704

11 (10/30)

704-30; 749-785

12 (11/6)

785-796, 832-861

13 (11/13)

861-914

14 (11/20)

914-929

15 (11/27)

Review

 

 

 

The following also represents supplementary references to the text

 

Week 1 (pp. 95-156)

 

            p. 134:  Reference to article regarding effect of abortion on crime rates:

                        Article by Donohue and Levitt

                        Critical Evaluation of Article 

 

Week 2 (pp. 156-202)

 

            p. 157:  In addition to the introductory materials on laws regulating sexual conduct, please read:

                        Patrick Lee & Robert George, What Sex Can Be: Self-Alienation, Illusion, Or One-Flesh Union

                        Cardinal Ratzinger, Considerations Regarding Proposals To Give Legal Recognition To Unions Between Homosexual Persons

            p. 158:  In addition to Bowers v. Hardwick, please read Lawrence v. Texas

  

Week 7 (pp. 483-515)

 

p. 490: In addition to other considerations regarding mistake, consider the number of fatal shootings by police.  Approximately 30,000 Americans died in 2001 from firearms.  Roughly a third of these are from homicide (of another); more than half are suicide; about 3% are accidental.  Approximately 2% (500 Americans) are killed every year in “legal intervention”  See http://www.ichv.org/Statistics.htm#generalstats  Within the “legal intervention” approximately 400 Americans are killed every year by police officers:  U.S. Dept. of Justice, Policing and Homicide, 1976-98:  Justifiable Homicide by Police, Police Officers Murdered by Felons

 

p. 493:  There are conflicting positions on Catholic teaching regarding the death penalty.  The most authoritative statement comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which effectively condemns the death penalty in modern society:

 

¶2267.  Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."68

On the other hand, not all who claim to be faithful to the Catholic Church believe that the issue is settled.  See

 

                        Antonin Scalia, God’s Justice and Ours, First Things, May 2002

                        Avery Cardinal Dulles and His Critics:  An Exchange on Capital Punishment, First Things, August/September 2002

 

 

 

See the Syllabus for the reading assignments.