Pre-Course Assignment: Thinking About Abolition

Over the course of this semester, we will spend much of our time learning black letter law (the criminal law rules you need to know for the bar exam). We'll also spend significant time working on the basic lawyerly skills of legal analysis and statutory interpretation. But, the study of criminal law in the United States in the 21st Century would be incomplete without engaging with the complex interplay between race and punishment over the past 150 years. Any serious engagement with that history inevitably raises fundamental questions about the basic premises of our criminal legal system. While the purpose of this course is not necessarily to resolve the question of whether our carceral punishment system should be abolished, I want you keep that question in mind throughout the course. 

One of the most important things that lawyers must do is be able to understand and operate with the existing regime while also retaining the ability to fundamentally question that regime. 

In this pre-course assignment, you'll engage with the question of abolition through Ava DuVernay's award-winning documentary13th and Reginald Betts' New York Times Magazine piece on what it means to be both a formerly incarcerated person and a crime victim. I've also included links to a variety of additional materials if you want to explore abolition more deeply.