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Can someone explain the difference between these?

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Crim law is a 1l course where you study criminal laws

Criminal Procedure is a 2l course (or might be split into a couple like CrimPro Adjudication and CrimPro Investigations) and you study the procedure of criminal justice (arrest, trial etc.)

Criminal justice is a useless undergrad major

Crim law = what they charge you with.

Crim pro = the rules they have to follow to charge you, try you, convict you, and sentence you.

CJ = what LT said. (Technically, the whole system including both of the above, as well as study of what actually happens - who gets charged and how and why).

The above is correct.

Also correct is at GULC, criminal justice is a 1L course. It's essentially criminal procedure (not sure why it's called criminal justice). Criminal law is then a 2L course that covers various crimes, theories of punishment, etc.

yips wrote:
Also correct is at GULC, criminal justice is a 1L course. It's essentially criminal procedure (not sure why it's called criminal justice). Criminal law is then a 2L course that covers various crimes, theories of punishment, etc.

Which makes a lot more sense than Crim as a 1L course.

kalvano wrote:

yips wrote:
Also correct is at GULC, criminal justice is a 1L course. It's essentially criminal procedure (not sure why it's called criminal justice). Criminal law is then a 2L course that covers various crimes, theories of punishment, etc.

Which makes a lot more sense than Crim as a 1L course.

I don't know if I agree here. Crim Pro is very technical/specific, whereas Crim makes more sense as a survey course and has broader applications

edit: please correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't taken crim pro, nor will I ever

Crim Pro wasn't hard for me, and it's vastly more useful. Crim is stupid. No one cares about mens rea, and whether or not there was a murder or robbery is pretty easy to figure out. You can learn 95% of Crim just by reading a jury charge.

Crim Pro is more like Con Law, but not quite as murky. It's 100X more useful, as its the sort of thing you'll inevitably be asked about at parties when people find out you're a lawyer. I did not find it terribly difficult, but it could just work for me.

When I interned at the US Attorney's Office, Crim was next to useless, but Crim Pro came up all the time: did they have PC for the initial search? Reasonable suspicion for a stop and frisk? Was the initial traffic stop justified? What about the entry into the house, did they need a warrant or were there exigent circumstances?

In terms of practical value, Crim Pro beats Crim to hell.

kalvano wrote:Crim Pro wasn't hard for me, and it's vastly more useful. Crim is stupid. No one cares about mens rea, and whether or not there was a murder or robbery is pretty easy to figure out. You can learn 95% of Crim just by reading a jury charge.

Crim Pro is more like Con Law, but not quite as murky. It's 100X more useful, as its the sort of thing you'll inevitably be asked about at parties when people find out you're a lawyer. I did not find it terribly difficult, but it could just work for me.

When I interned at the US Attorney's Office, Crim was next to useless, but Crim Pro came up all the time: did they have PC for the initial search? Reasonable suspicion for a stop and frisk? Was the initial traffic stop justified? What about the entry into the house, did they need a warrant or were there exigent circumstances?

In terms of practical value, Crim Pro beats Crim to hell.

Considering the field of law I want to specialize in, that's of no use, whereas mens rea plays a decent sized role

dingbat wrote:

kalvano wrote:Crim Pro wasn't hard for me, and it's vastly more useful. Crim is stupid. No one cares about mens rea, and whether or not there was a murder or robbery is pretty easy to figure out. You can learn 95% of Crim just by reading a jury charge.

Crim Pro is more like Con Law, but not quite as murky. It's 100X more useful, as its the sort of thing you'll inevitably be asked about at parties when people find out you're a lawyer. I did not find it terribly difficult, but it could just work for me.

When I interned at the US Attorney's Office, Crim was next to useless, but Crim Pro came up all the time: did they have PC for the initial search? Reasonable suspicion for a stop and frisk? Was the initial traffic stop justified? What about the entry into the house, did they need a warrant or were there exigent circumstances?

In terms of practical value, Crim Pro beats Crim to hell.

Considering the field of law I want to specialize in, that's of no use, whereas mens rea plays a decent sized role

But you can figure out mens rea in about 2 minutes. No need for a whole class. At and at least with Crim Pro, you can get really irritated by TV cop and lawyer shows and know exactly what they are dong wrong.