An understanding of criminal justice is fundamental to any lawyer’s education. At UVA Law School, the nation’s leading criminal law faculty offer an in-depth array of courses on both the substantive criteria of guilt or innocence and the procedures used in the arrest, prosecution and punishment of offenders. Working under the auspices of the school’s Center for Criminal Justice, which serves as a hub for scholarship and activities involving criminal law, the faculty are engaged with research designed to help make a more just society.
Virginia students do not study criminal law only from a distance. They also enroll in clinics that offer hands-on involvement in juvenile justice, criminal prosecution or defense, and innocence cases. The Law School supplements its curriculum with a wide range of extracurricular activities dedicated to criminal law, including a journal devoted to criminal law and an active Innocence Project.
Collectively, these experiences lead Virginia graduates to coveted positions in the U.S. Department of Justice Honors Program, in U.S. attorneys’ offices, and in district attorney and defense offices across the country.
Professor Josh Bowers introduced prospective students to UVA Law’s curricular, clinical and extracurricular opportunities in criminal justice. This session was part of UVA Law’s 2019 Admitted Students Open House.
On January 1, 2022, the most radical change to the American jury in at least thirty-five years occurred in Arizona: peremptory strikes, long a feature...
Like the federal government, states can apply their laws to people beyond their borders. Statutes can reach out-of-state conduct, such as fraud, that...
This chapter examines several ways that the United States takes advantage of international law’s permissiveness and ambiguity to extend its criminal...
Courts routinely use low cash bail as a financial incentive to ensure that released defendants appear in court and abstain from crime. This can create...
In our increasingly polarized society, claims that prosecutions are politically motivated, racially motivated, or just plain arbitrary are more common...
On January 1, 2022, the most radical change to the American jury in at least thirty-five years occurred in Arizona: peremptory strikes, long a feature...
Like the federal government, states can apply their laws to people beyond their borders. Statutes can reach out-of-state conduct, such as fraud, that...
This chapter examines several ways that the United States takes advantage of international law’s permissiveness and ambiguity to extend its criminal...
Courts routinely use low cash bail as a financial incentive to ensure that released defendants appear in court and abstain from crime. This can create...
In our increasingly polarized society, claims that prosecutions are politically motivated, racially motivated, or just plain arbitrary are more common...
Coercive policing is conducted mostly by means of commands, and officers usually cannot use force unless they have first issued an order. Yet, despite...
Prison abolition, in the span of just a few short years, has established a foothold in elite criminal legal discourse. But the basic question of how...
How dangerous must a person be to justify the state in locking her up for the greater good? The bail reform movement, which aspires to limit pretrial...
Artificial intelligence tools (“AI”) have great potential to improve government functions and efficiency. These algorithmic tools, protected by trade...
Writing for the Supreme Court in McCleskey v. Kemp, Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. authored a maximalist decision that transcended capital practice and...
We evaluate the impacts of adopting algorithmic risk assessments as an aid to judicial discretion in felony sentencing. We find that judges' decisions...
There has been an explosion of concern about use of computers to make decisions – from hiring to lending approvals to setting prison terms – affecting...
Peremptory strikes, and criticism of the permissive constitutional framework regulating them, have dominated the scholarship on race and the jury for...
Recent scholarship has underlined the importance of criminal misdemeanor law enforcement, including the impact of public-order policing on communities...
Risk assessment plays an increasingly pervasive role in criminal justice in the United States at all stages of the process—from policing to pretrial...
In several U.S. jurisdictions, prosecutors charge defendants with nonexistent criminal offenses. Sometimes the crimes do not factually exist, meaning...
Those who wish to control, expose, and damage the identities of individuals routinely do so by invading their privacy. People are secretly recorded in...
The following is a list of courses offered during 2022-25. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2022-23 is coded (23), 2023-24 is coded (24) and 2024-25 is coded (25). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.
Cannabis Legalization (SC) (24) Computer Crime Law (24,25) Criminal Adjudication (23,24,25) Criminal Investigation (23,24,25) Criminal Law Colloquium (24,25) Criminal Procedure Survey (23,24,25) Criminology (23,24) Crimmigration Law: Intersection of Criminal and Immigration Law (SC) (24,25) Critical Race Theory and Criminal Justice (25) Education Inside U.S. Prisons Seminar (23,24,25) Evolution of Holistic Defense (SC) (23,24,25) Federal Criminal Law (23) Federal Criminal Pretrial and Trial Practice (23,24,25) Federal Sentencing (SC) (23,24,25) Forensic Psychology in Criminal Proceedings (24) Global Business and International Corruption (SC) (23,24,25) Law and Inequality Colloquium (23,24,25) Law and Public Service (23,24,25) Law of Corruption (23) Law of the Police I: Rules, Rights and Regulation (23,25) New Research in Criminal Justice (25) Plea Bargaining (SC) (23,24) Political Prisoners (SC) (24,25) Practical Perspectives on Policing: Fair and Effective Policymaking by Law Enforcement (SC) (24) Public Law Colloquium (25) Race and Criminal Justice (23,24) Rethinking Criminal Justice (23) Second Amendment and Gun Violence Colloquium (25) The Great Writ (SC) (24,25)
University of Virginia School of Law professor Deirdre Enright has been studying the life and mind of a deceased serial killer, and has collected evidence that may have helped clear an aging South Carolina couple accused of killing their 5-year-old son 35 years ago.
Professor Anne Coughlin discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville , involving vagrancy law, for a mock class with admitted students.
The following is a list of courses offered during 2022-25. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2022-23 is coded (23), 2023-24 is coded (24) and 2024-25 is coded (25). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.
Cannabis Legalization (SC) (24) Computer Crime Law (24,25) Criminal Adjudication (23,24,25) Criminal Investigation (23,24,25) Criminal Law Colloquium (24,25) Criminal Procedure Survey (23,24,25) Criminology (23,24) Crimmigration Law: Intersection of Criminal and Immigration Law (SC) (24,25) Critical Race Theory and Criminal Justice (25) Education Inside U.S. Prisons Seminar (23,24,25) Evolution of Holistic Defense (SC) (23,24,25) Federal Criminal Law (23) Federal Criminal Pretrial and Trial Practice (23,24,25) Federal Sentencing (SC) (23,24,25) Forensic Psychology in Criminal Proceedings (24) Global Business and International Corruption (SC) (23,24,25) Law and Inequality Colloquium (23,24,25) Law and Public Service (23,24,25) Law of Corruption (23) Law of the Police I: Rules, Rights and Regulation (23,25) New Research in Criminal Justice (25) Plea Bargaining (SC) (23,24) Political Prisoners (SC) (24,25) Practical Perspectives on Policing: Fair and Effective Policymaking by Law Enforcement (SC) (24) Public Law Colloquium (25) Race and Criminal Justice (23,24) Rethinking Criminal Justice (23) Second Amendment and Gun Violence Colloquium (25) The Great Writ (SC) (24,25)
University of Virginia School of Law professor Deirdre Enright has been studying the life and mind of a deceased serial killer, and has collected evidence that may have helped clear an aging South Carolina couple accused of killing their 5-year-old son 35 years ago.
Professor Anne Coughlin discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville , involving vagrancy law, for a mock class with admitted students.
Students provide relief and legal support to people and communities that have been harmed by the criminalization of poverty and other forms of discrimination or deprivation of rights.
The semester-long Criminal Defense Clinic allows students to represent defendants in criminal cases in the local courts under the direct supervision of an experienced local criminal defense attorney. Students perform all of the lawyering functions associated with their cases, including interviews, investigation, research, negotiation and courtroom advocacy.
This clinic assists formerly incarcerated people with resolving the collateral consequences of arrests and convictions, and with creating sustainable and effective reforms in their communities.
The Federal Criminal Sentence Reduction Clinic works to reduce the sentences of indigent federal inmates and gives students a unique opportunity to practice in federal court.
Students represent youths on delinquency matters, as well as related school discipline and special education matters, in order to help keep youth in their homes, schools and communities with appropriate supports.
This clinic takes on collaborative projects with organizations interested in criminal justice reform, with the goal of producing supportive research and reliable data.
In this yearlong clinic, students work with prosecutors to try cases in local jurisdictions. Students explore a range of issues involved in the discharge of a prosecutor’s duties, including the exercise of discretion in the decision to initiate, prosecute, reduce or drop charges; interaction with defense counsel, investigative agencies and law enforcement personnel; and dealing with victims and other witnesses.
University of Virginia School of Law students learned what it is like for individuals to reenter society after leaving prison in a reentry simulation hosted by Professor Kelly Orians.
Psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus, a leading expert on memory, discusses how her research transformed the justice system. Dean Risa Goluboff and Professor Greg Mitchell host the episode.
This student-edited journal is one of only a handful at leading law schools focused on criminal law. The journal, which also sponsors legal symposia and conferences, publishes twice a year.
This pro bono student organization educates the Law School community about domestic violence and monitors domestic violence–related criminal justice proceedings in local jurisdictions. The project assists the commonwealth’s attorney offices of Charlottesville and of Albemarle County in their prosecution of these cases by interviewing victims of domestic violence. The group also organizes police ride-alongs and more.
Students assist clinic attorneys in evaluating claims of innocence by prisoners in Virginia and assessing the appropriate avenues of legal relief available.
Dean Risa Goluboff and Juval Scott, federal public defender for the Western District of Virginia, discuss the value of public service and share their experiences at the 1L Public Service Kickoff. Noa Jett ’25, membership co-chair for the Public Interest Law Association, introduced Scott.
Third-year University of Virginia School of Law student Cynthia Eapen discusses her interest in defendant advocacy and what she learned competing in moot court.
University of Virginia School of Law students learned what it is like for individuals to reenter society after leaving prison in a reentry simulation hosted by Professor Kelly Orians.
Professor Deborah Hellman was recently named president of NOMOS: the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, among other recent accolades for the University of Virginia School of Law community.
Bestselling author David Baldacci ’86, who recently gave $1.5 million to the University of Virginia School of Law, will discuss his new book at a talk at the Law School on Wednesday.
Former federal prosecutor Ryan Faulconer ’08 is bringing his lawyering and coaching skills to the University of Virginia School of Law as head of the Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh will welcome the Class of 2027 during orientation Thursday at the University of Virginia School of Law. In a Q&A, he talked about his time as a UVA Law student and his career in public service.
New courses offered this fall at the University of Virginia School of Law include Artificial Intelligence and Democracy, International Settlement of Disputes, and Single People and the Law.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Deirdre Enright has been studying the life and mind of a deceased serial killer, and has collected evidence that may have helped clear an aging South Carolina couple accused of killing their 5-year-old son 35 years ago.
Clinics at the University of Virginia School of Law shaped public policy, helped clients in court, appealed cases to the Supreme Court and more in the 2023-24 academic year.
Most interventions and reforms in criminal justice have little enduring impact, argues University of Virginia School of Law professor Megan T. Stevenson in a new article that reviews 50 years of data.
The University of Virginia School of Law’s Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition team has advanced to the international rounds, among other achievements and recognition for members of the Law School community.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Darryl Brown produced a Clooney Foundation TrialWatch report highlighting violations of international law and due process in the conviction of Azerbaijani opposition leader Tofig Yagublu.
Students, alumni and public interest lawyers discussed how to “decriminalize poverty” at the eighth annual Shaping Justice conference Feb. 2 at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Professor Josh Bowers of the University of Virginia School of Law was recently elected as a member of the American Law Institute, bringing the number of affiliated UVA Law faculty to 35.
These 10 stories from the past year highlight the range of service projects and profile students who have dedicated their time to serving the greater good at the University of Virginia School of Law.
New research by Professor Thomas Frampton of the University of Virginia School of Law pieces together the history and evolution of the jury box as a locus for Black Americans’ fight for political and civil rights.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Deirdre Enright has partnered with Norfolk’s chief prosecutor to determine whether any other defendants were swept into prison by the misdeeds of disgraced local detective Robert Glenn Ford.
Alec Karakatsanis, founder of Civil Rights Corps, delivered the keynote address for the eighth annual Shaping Justice conference, titled “(De)Criminalizing Poverty.”
Federal Public Defender Speaks at Public Service Kickoff
Aug. 29, 2023
Dean Risa Goluboff and Juval Scott, federal public defender for the Western District of Virginia, discuss the value of public service and share their experiences at the 1L Public Service Kickoff. Noa Jett ’25, membership co-chair for the Public Interest Law Association, introduces Scott.
Professor Anne Coughlin on Papachristou’s Impact and Legacy
March 17, 2023
Professor Anne Coughlin discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville , involving vagrancy law, for a mock class with admitted students.
What Works for Justice-Involved People With Mental Illness?
Feb. 7, 2023
University of California, Berkeley professor Jennifer Skeem discusses empirical guidance for shifting programs and practices to improve outcomes for high-need, high-risk populations involved in the justice system. Skeem’s talk was the 18th P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry, sponsored by the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, and the University’s schools of Law and Medicine. UVA Law professors Richard Bonnie ’69 and John Monahan introduce the event.
Part of the “Narrating Rap/Narrating Law” symposium on the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials, this panel included Professor Darryl Brown ’90, Molly Conger, Eden Heilman and Mac Phipps. Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui and Keegan Hudson ’24 moderated. The event was sponsored by the Sound Justice Lab, Center for the Study of Race and Law, Black Law Students Association, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Carter G. Woodson Institute, UVA Department of Sociology and UVA Department of Music.
Speaking of Injustice: A Night With Virginia’s Wrongfully Convicted
April 20, 2022
Freed clients Lamar Barnes, James Lamont Madison, Gilbert Merritt, Bobbie Morman Jr., Emerson Stevens and Jervon Tillman share their experiences at a fundraiser for the Innocence Project at UVA Law. Professor Deirdre Enright ’92, the founding director of UVA Law’s Innocence Project Clinic, and current directors and professors Jennifer Givens and Juliet Hatchett ’15 also participated.
Inside Sines v. Kessler: A Case Holding White Supremacists Accountable
Jan. 25, 2022
As part of the University’s 2022 Community MLK Commemoration, a panel explores the successful civil lawsuit against organizers, promoters and participants in the 2017 Unite the Right rally. The panelists are plaintiffs Marissa K. Blair, Elizabeth Sines ’19 and Devin Willis; co-lead plaintiffs’ attorneys Roberta Kaplan and Karen L. Dunn; and Deborah Lipstadt, an Emory University history professor who gave expert testimony on antisemitism at the trial. Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Law, moderated the panel. This event also included the presentation of the Gregory H. Swanson Award, named in honor of UVA and the Law School’s first Black student, by Dean Risa Goluboff.
Innocence Project Client Emerson Stevens Shares His Story
October 1, 2021
Former Innocence Project client Emerson Stevens is joined by Juliet Hatchett ’15, associate director of the Innocence Project Clinic, and Deirdre Enright ’92, founding director of the Innocence Project at UVA Law, to discuss his experience being wrongfully convicted and his recent exoneration. Stevens served 32 years for a murder he did not commit before he was paroled in 2017, then pardoned in 2021.
Opportunities for Advocacy and Healing After the Chauvin Verdict
April 20, 2021
UVA Batten School Dean Ian Solomon, UVA Police Diversity Officer Cortney Hawkins and Batten School Social Equity Advisor Marrissa Jones co-moderate a panel directly following the announcement of the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin. This panel featured a discussion of the verdict between community organizers, activists and scholars with expertise in organizing advocacy efforts, collective healing and trust-building in response to instances of racial injustice. The panelists are UVA Law professor Anne Coughlin; Brian N. Williams, an associate professor of public policy at UVA's Batten School; Burke Brownfeld, founder of Sig Global Services; Gene Cash, founder and CEO of Counseling Alliance of Virginia; Wyatt Rolla, interim director of the civil rights and racial justice program at the Legal Aid Justice Center; Valerie Lemmie, director of exploratory research at the Kettering Foundation; and Tia Sherèe Gaynor, an assistant professor of the University of Cincinnati and founding director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation. This event was the third of a four-part series examining Derek Chauvin’s trial for the death of George Floyd and was co-sponsored by UVA Law’s Center for Criminal Justice, the UVA Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and the UVA Police Department.
A panel of experts explores the relationship between incarceration and race. The panelists are Jeffrey Abramowitz, CEO of the Petey Greene Program; Yusuf Dahl, CEO of The Century Promise; author Barbara Bradley Hagerty; and Marc Howard, a Georgetown University professor. UVA Law professor Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Law, introduced the event, and Professor Gerard Robinson moderated the panel. The event was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law.
