ABSTRACT
A criticism frequently levelled at traditional Criminal Law courses is that, in content and presentation, they over-emphasise black-letter doctrine while failing to engage with the broader context in which criminal law operates. In 2007, following a review of the undergraduate law syllabus at Queen’s University, Belfast, a new compulsory Year One module was introduced: Crime and the Criminal Process. The first semester module, taught by doctrinal criminal lawyers and critical criminologists, was designed to provide a contextual understanding of ‘crime’ and the criminal justice process. Before students grappled with Criminal Law and its institutions, it was considered essential that they were encouraged to question misconceptions about ‘crime’, ‘deviance’, and ‘conflict’ within advanced democratic societies. Critical criminological analysis offered the lens through which the definitions of ‘crime’, the process of criminalisation, and the administration of criminal justice could be viewed and questioned. Taught in two distinct but related halves, and delivered through 24 lectures supported by weekly themed tutorials, the module proved highly popular with students. It was offered for six years: 2007–2013. Despite its popularity with tutors and students, in 2014, it was abandoned by the school to facilitate a further syllabus revision. This article traces its development and consolidation as an innovative, unique, and challenging module and demonstrates that in paving the way for teaching undergraduate law core subjects, it remains important to ground students’ learning in critical analysis.
