You are to choose a New York State case preferably considered at the appellate level within the last five years. The case should deal with significant jurisprudential issues of substantive (not procedural) criminal law (like the cases we read in class).
Once you choose your case submit it to me by e-mail. All other students will be foreclosed from using the same case.
After reading the full opinion you are to research the area/areas of law that the case deals with (sources: law reviews, other cases, treatises, texts, magazines, etc.). Your bibliography should have at least one relevant law review article related to your analysis. Law review articles can be found by utilizing the Index to Legal Periodicals and can be obtained in our library, interlibrary loan, the Oneida County Law Library, other local law libraries, or on the internet.
You are to prepare a 6-10 page paper (law review style, typed with a bibliography) reviewing the opinion and deciding its jurisprudential merits. In other words, assess the judge’s logic in terms of whether it serves the functions of law (Berman & Greiner, NYS Penal Law, Theories of Punishment, etc).
