Remember when you were just starting out as a new criminal law / procedure professor and you had no idea what you were doing and would have relished the chance to review what other, more experienced professors were doing in their classes? And perhaps to "borrow" materials from those more experienced professors? And to do all of this without the inconvenience and social barriers involved in cold-emailing more senior academics in your new field?

(Or perhaps you are one of these new professors. If so, you, too, should read on.)

Well, now there is a digital resource that new criminal law/procedure professors can access, sponsored by the AALS Criminal Procedure and Criminal Law Sections, that will let them instantly peruse the teaching materials of (we hope) many other professors so these new teachers can quickly get their bearings and flatten the learning curve.

But this new resource DEPENDS ON YOUR GENEROSITY! It doesn't take all that long to collect teaching materials you're willing to share (for some it might just be a syllabus; others, we hope, will share practice problems, lecture notes, past exams, etc.) and send them to the AALS Crim Pro Section so we can include them in this digital repository. I hope that you will consider taking a few minutes of your time to do this; it will be a real service to junior scholars in our field.

And one more thing: please start spreading the word about this resource to any junior scholars and mentees you come across who might find it beneficial. We'll be going live soon!

Details to contribute can be found below.

—

Hi Everyone,

Thanks very much to those of you who have already emailed me to explain your coursebook choice(s), shared your materials using the Dropbox file request below, or both.  For those who haven't yet, I'm sending this email to encourage you to please do so.  We're trying to build a helpful tool for all of us-although especially new faculty.  But this tool will be only as good as the participation of our community allows it to be.  (And I will say that I have gotten several emails from new faculty expressing their excitement about the repository.)  We plan to upload the first wave of materials we receive later this week, but it's looking a bit sparse right now.  As a reminder, here's what we would like you to do:

1.                  Please reply individually to me (rgold@law.ua.edu) explaining which coursebook (if any) you choose for each of your criminal justice-related courses and why you choose that book.  We are creating documents for each course in the repository that contains for each book the explanations of why the amazing teachers in this group use.  We think these documents will help other teachers, especially new teachers, decide which book and approach best suits their needs before diving more deeply into the repository.  (Casebook authors, this is a good opportunity to pitch your book, although we hope that those who haven't authored casebooks will contribute too.)

2.                  Please post materials using this Dropbox file request: www.dropbox.com/request/u345Veuxh6ZdNEwymEZF.  Feel free to include any notes or context you believe would be helpful to those reviewing your materials.  Please include your name when you're submitting using the File Request to keep those materials organized on the back end for us, and please upload your files in one or more folders rather than individually.  Please separate your materials for each criminal justice-related course that you teach.  (Uploading a big batch of materials with sub-folders works well and so will separate uploads with a folder of materials for each of your courses.)  To be clear, as we receive your materials, members of the Executive Committees will organize and upload them into the repository that the AALS is hosting.  Dropbox is just the temporary holding location.  We're using the File Request feature on Dropbox so that only Executive Committee members will be able to see what you submit.

Lastly, please feel free to forward this email to colleagues who may not be on the Crim Law or Crim Pro section listservs so that they can participate too.

Warmest regards,

Russell

Russell M. Gold
Frank M. Bainbridge-Walter L. Mims Professor of Law
The University of Alabama School of Law
  Reply to Sender   View Thread  
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 1/21/2025 1:36:00 PM
From: Russell Gold
Subject: Shared Teaching Materials for Criminal Justice Related Courses

It was great to see many of you in San Francisco!  (I apologize in advance for the length of this email, but please do read to the bottom where we ask for your help.)

As Justin Murray mentioned in San Francisco, the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Sections are excited to share with you an initiative aimed at supporting our colleagues in the legal academy by creating a digital repository to house syllabi, course materials, textbook recommendations, practice questions, and other teaching resources related to criminal law and procedure courses.

The repository's purpose is twofold:

  • Assist new faculty as they design courses for the first time.
  • Provide experienced faculty with a wealth of ideas and resources to refresh and enhance their courses.

We aim for these materials to be accessible only to other faculty members.  To that end, access to this repository will be limited to members of the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure sections.  If you are mentoring people who want access to the materials, please encourage them to join one or both sections.

For the repository to be the invaluable resource we envision, we need you're your help!  Please contribute materials for all of the criminal justice-related courses that you teach (including doctrinal courses, clinics, seminars, and externship seminars).  Materials to share might include:

  • Syllabi
  • Teaching notes
  • Classroom slides
  • Sample assignments, exams, or practice questions
  • Classroom exercises
  • Supplemental materials (podcasts, videos, articles, URLs for websites)

If you are willing to contribute, here's what we would like you to do.  In the next two weeks:

  1. Please reply individually to Russell (rgold@law.ua.edu) explaining which coursebook (if any) you choose for each of your criminal justice-related courses and why you choose that book.  We plan to create a document for each course in the repository that contains for each book the explanations of why the amazing teachers in this group use.  We think this document will help other teachers, especially new teachers, decide which book and approach best suits their needs before diving more deeply into the repository.
  2. Please post materials using this Dropbox file request: www.dropbox.com/request/u345Veuxh6ZdNEwymEZF.  Feel free to include any notes or context you believe would be helpful to those reviewing your materials.  Please include your name when you're submitting using the File Request to keep those materials organized on the back end for us, and please upload your files in one or more folders rather than individually.  Please separate your materials for each criminal justice-related course that you teach.  (Uploading a big batch of materials with sub-folders works well and so will separate uploads with a folder of materials for each of your courses.)  To be clear, as we receive your materials, members of the Executive Committees will organize and upload them into the repository that the AALS is hosting.  Dropbox is just the temporary holding location.  We're using the File Request feature on Dropbox so that only Executive Committee members will be able to see what you submit.

Lastly, if you have materials that you'd like to contribute but have any technical difficulties in so doing, please reach out to Russell individually (rgold@law.ua.edu).

Warmest regards and many thanks,
Russell Gold, Justin Murray, Melissa Redmon, Ben Levin, Evelyn Malavé, Maybell Romero, and Valena Beety