Mainstreaming Civil Rights in the Law School Curriculum: Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure
22 Pages Posted: 16 May 2012
Date Written: Spring 2010
Abstract
Criminal law and criminal procedure’s neutral definitions and objective approach traditionally taught in law school courses can have the effect of masking or subverting civil rights issues for students that are often present in the application of these legal standards to real world cases. Integrating some civil rights topics into core curriculum courses – by teasing out potential civil rights issues during class discussions or specifically focusing on civil rights issues as they relate to certain areas of the law – will cause students to truly consider the civil rights issues they otherwise would have only explored in a race or civil rights course, and they will leave law school with more informed opinion about vital civil rights debates and policy in the law.
The use of existing case law, reframed or explored in greater depth, can reveal to students not just the application of law to facts, or the development of the law in the courts, but can also provide an opportunity to discuss underlying impact on civil rights issues. Placing students in the role of a criminal defendant or reshaping a rule to a more familiar situation for students, and asking a series of probing questions about the validity of potential discrimination claim all will provide students with a greater context with which to evaluate the validity of a court’s ruling. Providing students with this experience will hopefully see them leave the class with a greater understanding of the positions of all parties involved in the criminal justice system and an appreciation for the magnitude of high stakes involved in each case.
Keywords: Civil rights, law school curriculum, discrimination, criminal procedure, criminal law
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