Customer Reviews

Modern Criminal Law: Cases, Comments And Questions (American Casebooks)

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I was not expecting to focus so much on mental states in criminal law, and thought we would start with elements of crimes (similar to learning about intentional torts). However, as the description indicates, this book focuses a lot on mental states, etc. As a first-year law student, I find this to be one of my least favorite textbooks. Perhaps criminal law cases are difficult by their nature since there are often constitutional issues, but the notes after the cases do little to clear some of the fog. One other annoying aspect of this book is the tiny margins (3/4 of an inch!), which make it hard to write notes in the cases as you're reading them. I think the concepts are becoming clearer, but this book could have done a better job shepherding students through introductory criminal law.

Law School sucks, I'll be honest. This book is pretty straight forward though - new editions every year, but if you have a 3rd - this is 4th - pretty much the same but for 1 or 2 cases. Most important was it came fast!