Prosecutorial Discretion
LAW 841 | 2-3 Hours
This seminar is concerned with justice and how to achieve it in criminal prosecutions. This class does not advance some grand or overarching theory of justice. In the main, people will regard a result as just if they regard the process leading to it as fair and if they believe the people responsible for it are fair-minded. That is what this seminar is about – how to do justice by ensuring that every aspect of law and order is marked by fair process and every participant is possessed of a fair mind. This is not so easy as it sounds. Fairness of mind is itself a process, not a static mental condition, and it demands vigilance. Students will examine and critique the process by which justice is done in federal criminal cases as well as the limits of the law in ensuring it by tracing the four main stages of any criminal case—investigation, accusation, judgment, and punishment. This seminar is about legal, ethical, and moral reasoning. Throughout this seminar, students will examine first principles, study actual cases, and hear from distinguished speakers who have grappled with these issues in real life.