Unit 2: Rules of Engagement

Overview:

Our first class provided an overview of the technical and doctrinal aspects of criminal law. But this course is more than a study of statutes and doctrines—it is a training ground for navigating moral complexity, disagreement, and ambiguity. Criminal law deals with disturbing human behavior, and even a basic understanding of it requires you to interpret laws while wrestling with hard questions of fairness, responsibility, and judgment. The course will challenge you to approach disagreement with both conviction and humility, cultivating empathy not as sentimentality but as a strategic and ethical tool for effective lawyering. Through cases like Dudley & Stephens—which you will read for our next class— you will explore whether dire circumstances justify morally troubling acts, learning to distinguish legal from moral responsibility. The course also examines how cultural assumptions shape doctrines of intent, recklessness, justification, and excuse, and asks whether the legal system leaves space for grace, forgiveness, and human dignity.

These issues matter for you not only as future lawyers but also as citizens. Lawyers routinely confront competing values and human stories behind the law, and their judgments can profoundly affect lives. Understanding ambiguity and disagreement prepares students to advocate persuasively, anticipate opposing arguments, and navigate systems where compromise is often impossible. Beyond the courtroom, these skills are essential for democratic citizenship in a polarized world—where the ability to listen, engage across differences, and humanize others is increasingly rare. By practicing clarity, precision, and empathy, you will better equipped to uphold both the technical demands of legal practice and the civic responsibility to sustain a pluralistic society.

Assignment:

• Inazu, “Criminal Law and Learning to Disagree (Part I)”