LAW 7170 - Criminal Justice: Fieldwork and Law Reform.

3 Credit Hours

Requirements: Open to a limited number of second and third year students. Consent of instructor required. Students must submit an application and be available for a possible interview.
Description
This is an elective course. Students will learn about the criminal justice system as it actually operates in metropolitan Atlanta and develop a law reform proposal about a specific aspect of that system. The course will use a wide variety of teaching methods including assigned readings drawn from both the legal scholarship and social science research, classroom lectures and discussions, and group fieldwork at locations such as police stations, jails and courthouses. Each student will select some aspect of the criminal justice system for independent research out of which will develop a written project proposing improvement or reform. The project must demonstrate mastery of applicable substantive criminal law and procedure and application of that knowledge to data gathered through the student’s own fieldwork. Examples of fieldwork would be carefully documented court-watching, analysis of data collected from public records, and interviews of relevant participants in the criminal justice system.