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Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure: Criminal Law and Procedure - In General

Primary Sources of U.S. Criminal Law

U.S. Constitution

  • Amendment IV – Search and Seizure

  • Amendment V – Self incrimination

  • Amendment VI – Speedy trial, right to a jury

  • Amendment VIII – Cruel and unusual punishments

Available in print and annotated by the U.S.C.A. (on the first floor of the UNH Law Library)

Available online and annotated on Lexis and Westlaw

Available online for free at Cornell's Legal information Institute

 

United States Code -Title 18  Crimes and Criminal Procedure

 Available in print and annotated by the U.S.C.A. (The Rules of Criminal Procedure are also analyzed by both Moore’s Federal Practice (in the UNH Law Library at KF8840 .M6 1997- ) and  Federal Practice and Procedure (this is often referred to as "Wright and Miller" and is in the UNH Law Library at KF8840 .W69)

 Available online on Lexis and Westlaw.  (Lexis has Moore's Federal Practice Westlaw has Federal Practice and Procedure)

Access the code for free at the U.S. House of Representatives, FDSys, and Cornell's Legal Information Institute.

 

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 28 – Rules of the Department of Justice, Board of Prisons, and Office of Independent Counsel

Available in print on the first floor of UNH Law Library.

Available for UNH users online on Lexis, Westlaw, and HeinOnline.

Access the CFR for free at FDSys, and Cornell's Legal Information Institute

 

 

Treatises and Other Secondary Sources

The Classics

 

Criminal procedure, Wayne R. LaFave (Westlaw)

 Model Penal Code and Commentaries (official draft and revised commentaries), (Westlaw)

 Search and seizure : a treatise on the Fourth Amendment by Wayne R. LaFave (Westlaw)

Substantive Criminal Law, Wayne R. LaFave   (Westlaw)

 

Other, more generic but still very helpful, sources

AmJur 2d and CJS – American Jurisprudence 2d and Corpis Juris Secondum are legal encyclopedias which provide a broad overview of legal topics with annotations to state and federal cases. (examples of “criminal” subject headings include “search and seizure,” “former jeopardy,” “larceny,” etc.) (Available on Westlaw “CJS” or Lexis “American Jurisprudence 2d”)

Note: there are also “Jurisprudences” for states as well. (e.g. Illinois Jurisprudence). Once you find a subject in one “jurisprudence,” series that same subject will be the same in any state-level jurisprudence you find.

ALR – American Law Reports, ALR’s are “annotations” of specific questions of law, with well-laid-out compilations of various state and federal cases. (e.g. What Belief that Burglary Is in Progress or Has Recently Been Committed is Exigent Circumstance Justifying Warrantless Search of Premises,  64 A.L.R.5th 637 (1998)) (In our library on first floor or, Westlaw “ALR” or Lexis “ALR”)

 

Periodicals, blogs, and Current Awareness:

White Collar and Criminal Law News: A criminal law news service from Bloomberg Law

Crim Prof Blog : A nationally recognized criminal law blog coming from the University of San Diego School of Law

SCOTUSblog: a blog published by the Akin Gump supreme court practice group following the activities of the U.S. Supreme Court including a Round Up,  Analysis, and  oral argument transcripts.

 

 

Finding Books in the catalog and on the shelf
 
Books in the UNH Law Library are arranged by Library of Congress call number.  Call numbers are designed so that books with the same subject sit together on the shelf. Subject specific criminal law books are located on the first floor of the library in the following classifications:
  • KF 9201 - KF 9220 -- Criminal law
  • KF 9223 -- Criminal justice administration
  • KF 9227.C2, KF 9927.D42 -- Capital punishment
  • KF 9241 - KF 9242 -- Insanity defense
  • KF 9315 -- Abortion
  • KF 9322 - KF 9324 -- Abuse
  • KF 9325 - KF 9329 -- Sex offenses
  • KF 9350 -- White-collar crime
  • KF 9375 -- Organized crime
  • KF 9444 -- Obscenity
  • KF 9619 -- Criminal procedure
  • KF 9625 -- Arrest
  • KF 9630 -- Search and seizure
  • KF 9632 -- Bail, pre-trial release
  • KF 9635 -- Extradition
  • KF 9640 -- Indictment & Prosecution
  • KF 9642 -- Grand jury
  • KF 9646 -- Right to counsel
  • KF 9660 - KF 9678 -- Evidence
  • KF 9680 -- KF 9682 -- Jury trial
  • KF 9685 -- Sentencing
  • KF 9690 -- Appeals & Post-conviction remedies
  • KF 9701 - KF 9710 -- Juvenile justice
  • KF 9728 - KF 9742 -- Imprisonment
  • KF 9771 - KF 9827 -- Juvenile justice
You can also try SUBJECT searching the Law Library's Catalog (use the Advanced Search feature to search by subject) with one of these Library of Congress Subject Headings:
 
Criminal Law – United States
 
Criminal Law - Ohio   You can really fill in any state or country here.  The pattern is Criminal Law - Geographic Place Name
(Hint: this is a good for finding state resources on Lexis and Westlaw.  Treatises on Lexis and Westlaw are available in the catalog as well.  The SUBJECT search "Crimial Law - Ohio" provides a link to the Lexis treatise Anderson's Ohio criminal practice and procedure)
 
Criminal Procedure - Pennsylvania You can really fill in any state or country here.  The pattern is Criminal Procedure – Geographical Place Name (Hint:  Find treatises on Lexis and Westlaw through the Law Library's catalog.  The SUBJECT search "Criminal Procedure - Pennsylvania"  provides a link to the Lexis treatise Pennsylvania benchbook for criminal proceedings)
 
Evidence, Criminal – United States
 
Due process of law
 
Defense (Criminal procedure)
 
Criminal justice, Administration of

Brought To You By:

Kathy Fletcher, Reference and Public Services Librarian

Luke Collins, Library Intern

Other “criminal” information

www.usdoj.gov – United States Department of Justice. Crime statistics, pleadings, publications for attorneys and the public.
 
www.fbi.gov – Federal Bureau of Investigation, home to the Uniform Crime Reports, the mother lode of crime statistics in the United States.
 
www.ussc.gov – United States Sentencing Commission, home to the Sentencing Guidelines as well as links to state sentencing commissions.

Journals and Law Reviews:

There are many journals and law reviews with a specific criminal law focus.
Hein On Line has a specific “Criminal Justice Journals” link which allows for full-text searching of over 70 American and international journals.
 
On WestlawNext, there is the “JLR” library of “documents from law reviews, CLE course materials, and bar journals. A document is an article, a note, a symposium contribution, or other materials published in one of the available periodicals.”
 
On LexisAdvance, “US Law Reviews and Journals, Combined “ a “combined United States Law Reviews and Bar Journals contains the full text of documents which are dedicated to the scholarly review of a variety of legal topics and developments and are of importance to students, practitioners and academics.”