Criminal Justice Program

Vanderbilt Law School’s Criminal Justice Program offers an array of courses, seminars, and clinics for students interested in criminal law and procedure. In addition to the first-year criminal law course, Vanderbilt’s large criminal law faculty and adjunct faculty teaches over twenty courses in the second and third years that focus on criminal theory and practice, criminal procedure, juvenile justice, international criminal law, mental health law, and various other areas connected to criminal law. For a list of upper class courses, see Criminal Justice Electives. The program also features academic roundtables and symposia aimed at exploring current legal scholarship on criminal justice issues. Described in the margin and below are recent and upcoming programs sponsored by the Criminal Justice Program. For more information on the faculty of the Criminal Justice Program see Criminal Justice Program News.

Full-Time Faculty

Affiliated Faculty

Criminal Law Association

The Criminal Law Association was established by students in September 2010 to educate and inform members and the Vanderbilt Law community about issues surrounding criminal law, criminal procedure and the justice system at the state, federal and international levels. Christopher Slobogin is the organization's faculty advisor, and 2011-12 officers include Michael Walker (director), Matthew Stidle (communications director), Ian Quin (treasurer), David Kieley (events director), and Alex Scarbrough (outreach director).

Related Information in Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice Rountable on Reducing the Criminal Justice System's Reliance on Incarceration - March 30, 2012, 1:00-4:00 p.m.

 

Vanderbilt University Law School’s Criminal Justice Program has been asked by the ABA to sponsor a roundtable to discuss policies surrounding the criminal justice system's reliance on incarceration and how they, or some variant of them, might be implemented in the state of Tennessee. Similar roundtables are taking place in ten other states. The roundtables will bring together key policymakers and participants in the criminal justice system to start a dialogue about these policies. The ultimate goal is to provide information on successful criminal justice programs to those who can help get them started and to set up a mechanism for promoting them. Proposals specific to Tennessee will be on the agenda.

slobogin book WEB

Christopher Slobogin, the Milton Underwood Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal justice Program, says we should dramatically reform the juvenile justice system to stress community-based treatment over incarceration. Slobogin is the co-author of the book Juveniles at Risk: A Plea for Preventive Justice, with Mark R. Fondacaro, professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. The book, published by Oxford University Press, proposes some radical-sounding ideas, among them that juvenile offenders should never be tried as adults and never transferred to adult prisons. Incarceration in general should only be a last-resort measure for juveniles, Slobogin argues.