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Legal Commentary

: Prawfs

What Class Should be Added to More Law Schools' Curricula? My Suggestion: A Class in Plea Bargaining. What's Yours?

By Dan Markel, Ethan Leib, Rick Garnett, Matt Bodie, Paul Horwitz , Steve Vladeck, and Orly Lobel

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I would like to thank Dan Markel for inviting me back to guest blog on PrawfsBlawgfor the month of March. I last guest blogged here in April 2009 and posted entries about ungraded midterms, the law school case method, "open everything" exams, backwards, forwards, and sideways exam grading, exam word limits, biased exams, exam reading periods, blind grading, uncurved classes, flex credit classes, exam conferences, and oral exams. David Byrne said the following about the Talking Heads choosing the title for their second album:

"When we were making this album I remembered this stupid discussion we had about titles for the last album," Tina smirked. "At that time I said, 'What are we gonna call an album that's just about buildings and food?' And Chris said, 'You call it more songs about buildings and food.'"

The band ended up calling the album More Songs About Buildings and Food. You can think of my posts this month as More Posts About Teaching and Grading.

My first post is about classes which law schools should think about adding to their curricula. When I thought about this topic, the first class that popped into my mind was a class in plea bargaining. Many law students enter the field of criminal law, and "[p]lea bargaining now dominates the day-to-day operation of the American criminal justice system; about ninety-five percent of convictions are obtained by way of a guilty plea." Michael O'Hear, Plea Bargaining and Procedural Justice, 42 Ga. L. Rev. 407, 409 (2008). Moreover, I would argue that plea bargaining in this country is in a constant state of flux, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court's opinion in United States v. Mezzanatto, 513 U.S. 196 (1995).

And yet, I would also argue that most law students don't learn much about plea bargaining at most law schools. Sure, Criminal Procedure II/Criminal Procedure Adjudication classes cover plea bargaining. That said, the topic is usually only covered in one or two class sessions, and far fewer students take this class than Criminal Procedure I/Criminal Procedure: Police Investigation.

So, what would a Plea Bargaining class look like? Well, after thinking about this topic, I did an internet search and found that Josh Bowersat the University of Virginia School of Lawteaches a Plea Bargaining class, and he graciously provided me with a copy of his syllabus for his semester-length version of the class (Download Plea Bargaining Semester-Length Syllabus) and his syllabus for his January Term (J-Term) version of the class (Download Plea Bargaining J-Term Syllabus).

So, what do readers think? Do you teach a class that you think that more law schools should offer and/or are you otherwise aware of such a class? Or is there a class that your school doesn't offer but that you think that it should offer?

-Colin Miller

Full post as published by Prawfs on March 01, 2010 (boomark / email).