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Criminal Law: Cases, Controversies and Problems

3rd Edition
Joseph E. Kennedy
ISBN: 9781684673902
CasebookPlus ISBN: 9798887867342
Subject: Criminal Law
Format: Print - Hardbound
Page Count: 958
Copyright: 2026 | Status: Accepting Pre-Orders
Other Formats Available
CasebookPlus option available

This title is a part of our CasebookPlus™ offering as ISBN 9798887867342. Learn more at Faculty-CasebookPlus.com.

Students today expect learning to be both efficient and interesting. They use online materials and study aids to supplement class-assigned materials and to “hack” the law. This textbook cuts out the middle person by integrating challenging principal cases that are aggressively edited into an engaging overview of the black letter law. The explanatory sections describe the law through lively language and colorful examples that students can readily grasp and remember. Providing students with a clear doctrinal overview permits the selection of cases that drill down deeper into fundamental or cutting-edge issues. 

Many of the principal cases put the old wine of the criminal law into new bottles that students will find meaningful and interesting. In addition to homicide, rape, assault, traditional property crimes and drug offenses, the cases selected include environmental and white collar crime, obstruction of justice, criminal copyright infringement, hate crimes, online threats, and computer crimes. Short discussion questions follow each case that stimulate understanding of the holding and the deeper issues at stake. Additional materials raise important critical perspectives dealing with issues of race, class and gender. Practice problems and links to online video clips allow students to apply what they are learning, and the appendix contains numerous materials for engaging lawyering exercises and a performance test question to acquaint students with that portion of the Next Gen Bar Exam.


Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: American Casebook Series
Publication Date: 05/20/2026

Joseph E. Kennedy, University of North Carolina School of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class — on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

  • A new print or digital casebook
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  • 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:
Multiple-choice self-assessment questions, including:
  • Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
  • Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
  • Subject area review questions for end of semester use
Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they've purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students' learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students' understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

The Third Edition of Kennedy’s Criminal Law: Cases, Controversies and Problems adds important updates and interesting new materials including the following:

  • Recent U.S. Supreme Court cases dealing with homelessness, online threats, mens rea, and white-collar crime.
  • A new chapter on criminal law issues dealing with policing including excessive force and the policing of protest activity.
  • A sample Performance Task Question for instructors who want to expose students to that component of the Next Gen Bar Exam.
  • New practice problems dealing with stand-your-ground defenses and environmental crimes.
  • A guide in the teacher’s manual on integrating the use of AI tools into lawyering exercises that use principal cases and practice problems.

Learn more about this series.