Customer Reviews

Criminal Law in a Nutshell (Nutshell Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a first year law student, I bought this book thinking it would help me and supplement the class. However, I found this book not very useful. In fact, I found it frustrating. I would find it brief in the places I needed the most hope and long and drawn out over issues that were simple. While the book does a nice job of covering basic concepts like mens rea {sorry if spellings wrong its been two years), I felt uncomfortable using it for specific crimes. Too often because either you're working from a model code or your own state's law, this book was only good for a general perspective. In addition, I feel that if you want something to help you and something more than the Emmanuel's, I recommend the "Understanding" Series. I bought that as well for this class, and I felt it was much better written and was focused on helping you to learn the actual issues. This book should probablely be used, if at all by practitioner or individuals who have already studied the material (like for bar review). I would encourage you to go elsewhere for help in learning the material.

The Nutshell series are some of the best I've used in law school, and trust me I've tried pretty much every type out there. Definetly a must buy!

This book was extremely helpful! I found it to be most useful when I read it after I read the course readings(as a review tool)...but of course, you should do whatever helps you learn best. However,I must stress, as tempted as one may get, DO NOT substitute it for the actual case readings!! There are a lot of details that are not mentioned in the horn book that law professors are interested in...and they test you on what THEY think is important, not what you think is.