A Criminal Law Atheist Teaching in the Seminary

I am a non-believer when it comes to criminal law.In the context of early twenty-first century America, the traditional legal doctrines of substantive criminal law don't usually make a difference for defendants, for victims, or for society at large.Common Law or Model Penal Code, Objectivist or Subjectivist, Retribution or Incapacitation-take your pick, it doesn't matter.The machinery of criminal justice chums away, giving us eye-popping incarceration rates without much public safety or social cohesion in return.The capacity to constrain the state's power to punish, which I contend is central to any effective body of criminal "law," is nowhere to be found in today's typical criminal code or in the routine operation of the criminal courts.Once a prosecutor identifies an activity that might threaten public safety, it is possible, given enough time and resources, to punish that activity.I will concede that criminal law doctrine makes a difference in some individual cases.The requirement that the state prove every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt may erect some temporary barriers to a prosecution.But if proof of one crime proves inconvenient, legislatures know what to do.They criminalize precursor conduct, such as the possession of "tools" to commit the authentically harmful crime.The real drivers of criminal justice are legislators, who do not give a fig for the insights of the common law or the earnest rationality of code commissions.Constitutional doctrines-one potential way to limit the legislature's power to create new crimes that bypass the inconveniences of traditional proof-are anemic.Nor do the purposes of criminal law present any realistic boundaries.Any competent practitioner of criminal law can explain how virtually any proposed criminal statute serves at least one of the classic purposes of the criminal law.My non-belief creates an awkward moment when the Associate Dean knocks on my office door every spring, asking how I can contribute to the core curriculum during the next academic year.How can an atheist agree to teach students in the seminary?Particularly in their first year of legal studies, when students form their beliefs in the rule of law while learning practice-related skills, should they be hearing from me?I tell the Associate Dean that I can teach Criminal Law to the entering law students, but only if I teach the course with a frank emphasis on the legislative process and the lawyer's use of statutory language.Torts, Contracts, and Property