Published on Feb. 22, 2024

Updated on July 31, 2024

Professors Ben Trachtenberg and Anne Alexander have published “Criminal Procedure: A Free Law School Casebook” with the CALI eLangdell series. The series includes casebooks made available at no charge for digital files, and at the cost of printing for paper books. Authors include faculty from law schools such as Yale, Texas A&M, and the University of Washington.

The book is available now for free download: https://www.cali.org/books/criminal-procedure-trachtenberg-alexander. CALI will soon make paper books available for purchase.

In their book, Professors Trachtenberg and Alexander described the purpose of their project:

“Universities exist to promote the search for knowledge and to transmit human knowledge to future generations. Public universities in particular have a tradition of sharing knowledge with the broader populace, not merely their own students, and they also have a tradition of providing excellent education at affordable prices. This book exists to further these important missions of the University of Missouri. Available at no cost, it reduces students’ cost of attendance.”

They added: “In addition, this book is available under a Creative Commons license, meaning that anyone—inside or outside the university—can use it to study criminal procedure and can share it at will. Faculty at other universities are free to adopt it.”

Professors Trachtenberg and Alexander are preparing a teacher’s manual to assist faculty at other law schools who use the book for their courses. They are also willing to share other teaching materials with instructors upon request.