Introducción al derecho penal: ¿por qué necesitamos leyes? (Campamento de verano)

Why do we even need laws? Before we jump into how laws are applied and learning to think like a lawyer, we need to understand the foundations of law - why do we have them, what is the purpose, how we write laws, and how we should think of them. This brief introduction will have students thinking challenged, force them to defend their decisions with evidence, and have students going through the process of creating a law (is it easy or hard to write a law?).

If you want to try me out as a teacher before committing to a Summer Camp length class, check out my Ongoing class: Law School for Teens - Weekly Class.

This class will be discussion based with all the work being done in class. Students will need to work with small groups to talk through scenarios, explore ideas, and produce brief, in-class work products. The purpose is to deepen the understanding of why laws are important, why it's important to think through writing laws, and understanding a just law from an unjust law.

While I anticipate that all the work will be done in the class, the discussions may have a tendency to take longer than anticipated. I will make judgment calls on pursuing a student-led discussion or pulling the kids backed to the planned material while in class. If we don't get all of the planned work done in class because I deem our discussion more valuable than the assignment, the work will be optional for the students outside of class. 

Here's what the schedule for the class will be:

Day 1: Why do We Need Laws?
- Introduction to the Class - Expectations
- Discussion on several scenarios (students will need tools to write down brainstorming ideas - whatever they are most comfortable with)

Day 2: Rewriting a Bad Law
- Now that we have delved into the complexity of law, can we make it more clear so it matches the purpose of the law?
- This will be done in small groups because it is beneficial to bounce ideas off of each other as we explore these concepts

Day 3: Discussing the nature of Justice, Equality, and Fairness
- Is equality really a good thing? Should the law be fair? What do you mean by Justice? These are the questions that we will explore in this class.

Day 4: Exploring the Moral Side of Laws
- What theory should use to punish people? We will use a moral problem used at Harvard Law to explore this issue.
This is an introduction into two concepts:
- Utilitarianism - the most good for the greatest number
- Retributivism - an eye for an eye