This course is part of the required first-year JD curriculum. It examines the traditional general issues in the substantive criminal law, including the purposes of punishment and the appropriate limits on the use of the criminal sanction. It focuses predominantly on how criminal statutes are organized around objective offense elements (conduct, causation, and attendant circumstances) and mental states, and to a lesser degree on inchoate crimes, complicity, justification and excuse.
4 units · Law Honors/Pass/Restrd Cr/Fail
This course is part of the required first-year JD curriculum. It examines the traditional general issues in the substantive criminal law, including the purposes of punishment and the appropriate limits on the use of the criminal sanction. It focuses predominantly on how criminal statutes are organized around objective offense elements (conduct, causation, and attendant circumstances) and mental states, and to a lesser degree on inchoate crimes, complicity, justification and excuse.
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.