Criminal Procedure: Investigation

Combining first-hand knowledge of the criminal procedure system with stellar constitutional law scholarship, Levenson and Chemerinsky now offer a free-standing and student-friendly casebook that focuses on the investigation phase of criminal procedure.

Written in the eminently articulate style that characterizes Chemerinsky’s Constitutional Law casebook, Criminal Procedure: Investigation offers:

• straightforward essays by the authors that illuminate principal and minor cases
• a first-chapter overview of criminal procedure that looks at
  • the roles of the participant
  • the progression of a case through the system
  • key procedural rules and governing principles
  • the Incorporation Doctrine
  • the test for determining when new procedural rules should be applied retroactively
• a consistent and systematic chapter structure that
  • introduces the topic
  • discusses the history and development of the law
  • cites examples from recent cases where the key issues have been raised
  • offers an analytic critique of ;the resolution of the issue
• chronologically organized chapter topics that mirror the sequential ordering of the investigation process
• samples of legal pleadings that exemplify attorneys’ actual arguments
• a panoramic perspective on practice as conveyed through the eyes of prosecutors, defense counsel, judges, police, and victims
• Supreme Court cases from the 2006-2007 term
• a detailed Teacher’s Manual that offers questions and answers to support teaching and fuel class discussion
• an expanded teaching package that includes PowerPoint slides, a DVD that presents the facts and backgrounds of several key cases, and an author website

Sure, it is a pleasure to teach and to read, but you could decide to adopt it simply for the wealth of experience and expertise that Chemerinsky and Levenson bring to their subject.