#criminal law

[minilibrarian]

Morning study ft. Criminal law 📚

[causeimcrayzeebee]

Wolfgang Akire through the lens of the law: an analysis

i would like to give a disclaimer that while im very interested in the law, im not a lawyer or in law school. my knowledge comes from the few law classes i have taken, participation in a couple mock trials, and some personal research, so please take this with a grain of salt! if im missing something or saying something inaccurate, please let me know! i am always open to learning more!! not to mention this is my understanding of law in the United States, so this may differ by country.

in the end, this isn’t meant to be too serious, just using the knowledge i do have and applying it to p:eg!!!

okay now spoilers for the prologue and all of chapter 1!

well ig before we get into it let me say rest in peace a king... I will miss you, you hypocritical bastard........

alright, so firstly, let’s consider Wolfgang’s character profile.

two things stand out to me here. the first is how he has “successfully defended over 200 of his clients without dropping a single case.” we can infer that Wolfgang is a criminal defense attorney. it’s possible he could be a lawyer in the civil law sector instead, but considering his strong feelings about murder and crime, and the fact that this is Danganronpa, it leads me to believe he is a criminal attorney for the sake of relevance (I don't think any of us would care if he were a corporate attorney after all).

now, that sentence you just read is particularly interesting in the case of Wolfgang Akire. From the prologue's mock trial, we can see that Wolfgang feels very passionately about murder, condemning the murderer even without insight as to why they committed the crime, instead big on retribution and justice (which the definition of could definitely be debated). Yet, as a defense lawyer, Wolfgang would have been defending people from criminal accusations, from anything to armed robbery, arson, or murder. we’re not particularly sure on his view of other crime, but we can assume he also has a similarly negative view of it that he has of murder. out of 200 people (within such a short time span of finishing law school too), what are the odds that out of all 200, not one of them was actually guilty? of course, lawyers have the ability to drop or not take on cases, but as his profile says, he hasn’t dropped a single case! it’s quite possible he had complete faith that every client was innocent, but with the evidence and files he’d have to go through, he had to have seen something that was damning and prepared accordingly to address in the most sympathetic way possible to avoid prosecution winning their case. and that's the thing with Wolfgang; his job requires building sympathy for the accused, and it requires sowing seeds of doubt in prosecution's case. there had to have been someone that he was defending from an accurate charge(s). so whether he knew it or not, he has very likely defended people guilty of crime; and yet, he still feels very adamantly against them.

Here's where I fall short on my analysis; I honestly do not know what to make of this conclusion. his behavior and his ideals are almost contradictory in a sense. is this insight to wolfgang's clear hypocrisy? but what does that really say about him? I'd love to know what any of y'all think in regards to this :0

Now, the second thing that stands out to me is that he wants to make sure that everyone is fairly represented and make sure logic and evidence drive the discussion. While this does seem to be true, the mock trial shows that he lets his feelings become a big part of the discussion as well. everything he does screams prosecutor to me, so it was shocking to find out he works as defense. Wolfgang has a very interesting way of viewing things, almost dichotomous, unlike what his profile says. it's similar to the format of a trial, where it's not meant to be a team working together to find the complexities and nuance within a certain issue, but rather an attempt to prove your point and disprove the other side. trials aren't supposed to be a discussion where everyone reaches the truth together (Danganronpa trials are not very accurate but of course I don't think they were intended to be in the first place), they are for you to win your case-- as a defense attorney, its poking as many holes into the prosecution’s case as possible. (little fun side note, this is very similar to how debate works; Wolfgang and Damon are a lot more alike than one would originally think.)

Considering all of this, it makes me wonder if Wolfgang was intentionally trying to split the group apart,,,, because it's easier. because it makes more sense. as defense, lawyers may pin the crime on another, but without the burden of proof that prosecution does, they can sling out accusations to increase doubt on prosecutions case without having to actually prove it (that would be left for a separate case). it's easier to divide a group and have a bunch of people follow you while isolating the 'other side', and with that division made, it's more likely someone you isolated will be the 'villian' anyways; and in this case, this was true-- Eva, who has been socially ostracized her whole life, was driven to murder to protect herself from the blinding fear that everyone was out for her (even if that wasn't entirely true). this could be just how Wolfgang has gotten used to going through his life. maybe the bad habits he picked up from his father were the divisive kind of us vs them mindset lawyers have to have in a courtroom.

speaking of his father, let's address the motive-- there's so many things that Wolfgang's blackmail could be about; faking his law degree, not taking the bar exam, defending horrible people, the list goes on. Honestly, a scenario i have considered is that it's about him defending his father for a crime he actually did commit, yet winning the case; or his father commuting a crime in general and winning his case, leaving Wolfgang conflicted as that is the sort of thing he does all the time, yet his father had just taken away his mothers life and gotten free (this is very much just me guessing a possibility though). when Wolfgang was hallucinating, he says he's not like them (to diana who he thinks is someone else) and he'll never be like them; It's most likely that he saw his father. the theory I'm going with right now is that his father was at the very least heavily involved in the likely murder of his mother (thus bring her back in reference to his mom). his father was probably also a lawyer and may have pushed wolfgang into going into the field himself, especially when he sent him to law school as a teenager. maybe Wolfgang wanted to live up to the expectations his father had of him. who knows exactly what Wolfgang wanted everyone to know him as, it was probably a long the lines of a competent lawyer. but, as of right now it's all speculation (objection! haha.... that was not funny my bad), so again, I'd love to hear some thoughts.

Another little funny thing i'd like to note is when Damon and Eva come back to the dinning hall and Wolfgang asks where they've been, Damon responds saying it was for discussing the motive. He's internally smug about how defeated Wolfgang seemed to be by that, and I thought that the funniest shit; very similar to being on cross examination, thinking you have the witness in your hands, when suddenly they wiggle out of your accusation. he's so real for that.

that is pretty much all i've got so far! let me know what y'all think and thanks for reading!!! :)

[floral-ashes]

I’d like to point out that if someone accidentally loses a tooth as a result of shower sex, that’s probably criminal in Alberta. But not someone losing a tooth from being punched in the face as part of a boxing match.

I don’t know about you, but that does feel a bit weird.

[kayystudiess]

Good afternoon! Back with some pink notes 🩷 these are my absolute essentials for notes!!

Kokuyo campus notebook in B5, Kacogreen pens & unipin fine liner for titles :)

[dunesofpriam]

Who would have guessed; our middleaged paedo client has decided to transition right after getting imprisonable charges.

[beyond-mybeloved-horizon]

It's sunny and very hot outside.

I'll have a trip next week. To enjoy it , today I read some text books.

[nolshru]

eh, I always see this disclaimer, so even though it absolutely goes without saying - none of this is legal advice, it is just a bored law student talking about something interesting, and much of this has a high likelihood to be incorrect, don't listen to me for any reason other than entertainment pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepl

so, I was reading the Discord terms of service when I noticed the "don't do anything else that's illegal"

and like, "'anything else that's illegal' means 'anything else that's illegal'" is just... really silly - this is completely unenforceable

so, how do we define illegality? for most legal systems its really easy, all crimes are statutory in most of them, and actually beyond that, most of them have criminal codes, so it can be easily resolved for a country like Germany, or France, or Italy by saying "for the purposes of this document, 'anything else that's illegal' refers to any offense listed in the criminal code of the user's country"

this doesn't *really* work, though, because many countries, particularly those in common law systems, such as England and Wales, the USA, or Australia, do not have criminal codes (though, there are some common law systems with criminal codes, like Canada (maybe including quebec? honestly don't know, it doesn't use the same legal system as elsewhere in Canada), these are rare), common law's law based on precedent means that a good deal of crimes aren't even statutory to any real extent (oh, just for the sake of it, and me having this knowledge, Scotland doesn't have a criminal code - this is just relevant because it's both a civil and common law system, so ye, unsure about any other hybrid system (oh, Quebec is back, hi Quebec))

this term remains unenforceable, really, like, what constitutes illegality just isn't defined, so, what would some alternatives be? (all of these will be relevant to Scotland, because I know Scotland best)

Option 1: For the purposes of this document, "anything else that is illegal" refers to statutory offenses not otherwise described in this document

this doesn't include all crimes, but it includes a lot of the most serious crimes, such as not reporting how many female salmon you have in your fish farm, not keeping records on fish sales for 3 years, or catching a sea fish that are the wrong size (I tried to find specifics, but Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 was very vague and I really don't want to keep looking through fish related legislation) - I think this is probably my preferred solution, but like, it really does not apply to every law, common law is a huge aspect of how criminality is described in Scotland - notably, the writings of Baron Hume are excluded, which like, until fairly recently was the source of crimes as serious as rape and serious sexual assault, so like, yeah, it's definitely not a perfect solution, there's probably other cases like that

Option 2: For the purposes of this document, "anything else that is illegal" refers to any behaviour that Discord considers to be illegal

this works, but it gives Discord uh... a lot of power that I wouldn't want it to have - surprised this *isn't* what Discord says, but like, I'm glad it isn't

Option 3: For the purposes of this document, "anything else that is illegal" refers to <list of things that are considered illegal>

this also works, but I think it's weaker and less effective than option 1, inclusio unius est exclusio alterius, after all, if you don't include something like "not informing customers as to the origin of fish sold", then you are impliedly giving permission to users that they are allowed to do that, so I really don't like this solution

Option 4: keep as is

I like this solution 2, sure it's unenforceable, but like, so are arbitration clauses and those are everywhere - even if you can't enforce a term in a contract, it's still a term in a contract, and people aren't just going to breach it because they can, it's like, fine and stuff

anyways, that was fun, bye

[tsukimefuku]

I don't normally talk on Tumblr but i just want to say I love love love your pics girlie. As someone who's 19 and wants to be a criminal lawyer myself, you are an inspiration for me as it's something I want to pursue.

Especially giving a voice to those who definitely need it the most 💕

Is there any advice that you'd give me for wanting to pursue in the field? Even the basics will help. I want a perspective from someone who's actually (I assume) doing this full time, if you're willing to pass the knowledge, Sensei 🙂‍↕️ (I pray for your sleep schedule and overall well being)

Hope you're doing well, sincerely! Keep doing what you love!

Hi!! Thank you so much, I'm always very happy to get these types of asks/DMs, and it will be my pleasure and privilege to help to any extent 💜

I've been thinking about this ask for weeks, but wanted to reply to it on my pc, and getting Tumblr to work again over here was its whole shebang 😅

Tips, tips, tips... okay, let's start at the beginning. I'm writing these considering my experience in my country (Brazil), so you might have to adapt a few things here and there depending on where you're from.

First off, the most important thing you can do is not slack off in college. In college it's where you're going to hone in not only some of the skills needed for this job (like the ability to seat and read, and read, and read precedents, bills, etc for extended amounts of time while paying attention to the details) but make your first professional contacts, especially with teachers. I absolutely slacked off regarding networking with my teachers (thanks to the 'tism) and although I got a jumpstart with academic research, my professional life did suffer.

Find an internship and use this time in college to experiment with as much areas as possible. I did have some familiarity with criminal law due to my family, so I had some idea I did like it. However, I had my fair share of internships in private law, and I kid you not, many organizational skills to study big lawsuits (currently, most the lawsuits in my firm are what we call mega ops, so they usually have 10k+ pages) I honed while in private law. Given these giant firms that work with private law tend to have a LOT of lawsuits to juggle, it's inevitable that they develop systems and specific bureaucratics to juggle it all. Take what knowledge you can from it.

If you can get an internship in a public defender's office, do. It's where you will find the most diverse list of lawsuits (concerning types of crimes) and you will get to learn multiple ways to come up with a defense strategy. Very rarely defense will be dependent on alibi, for example "I didn't do it, I wasn't there, it wasn't me, etc.". Consider learning from a public defender the equivalent to a general residence before you become more specialized, and what you learn here will be incredibly valuable going forward.

Try to get into a criminal law office midway through your law degree (idk how the undergrad+spec works in the US, I think this would be just as you go into the law specific subjects I guess). Usually here in Brazil, you get into a law firm as an intern and work with them up until you graduate, and since you've been there for all that time, you are then hired as a junior. Check if it works like that where you live too.

This one is more personal -- your client's problems are NOT your problems. I've been an attorney volunteer to overturn wrongful convictions alongside an institute here in my country akin to The Innocence Project (the human rights organization), and it was one of the hardest times of my professional life. To watch people suffering from every goddamn sort of AWFUL injustices and having my hands and feet tied most of the time, because the system is RIGGED to screw a specific demographic (the poor and the people of color). Think of it as a doctor would -- you give your best to help the patient to the best of your capabilities, but sometimes they will still suffer from things that are completely out of your control. To be a criminal defense lawyer is to accept a certain degree of helplessness regarding the system you're going to work with (and mostly against) for the good part of your life. I don't mean to discourage you, but it is hard, so brace yourself. It's a beautiful profession, and I will absolutely be waiting for you on the other side 💜

[snarkylinda]

Ok that was absolutely precious. I need more of the Bau interacting with the others's love interests/families.

[justalawschoolgirl]

pov : the day before/of a criminal law test

[hole34]

criminal law teacher started talking about CSA and i was like what the FUCK took me a minute to realise he meant Controlled Substances Act

[minilibrarian]

Studying in the fresh air ft. the extremely heavy stack I have to bring to school on Mondays 😫

[t-ess-e]

I just want to talk about how "The Devil Judge" is one of the best kdrama's ever, the plot? fire! The acting? Top notch! The characters are relatable. The writing is so beautiful I could actually cry, Strong female characters (i support their wrongs and their rights) And yes the sexual tension between the two male leads - its not defined but trust me, friends don't look at friends that way.

It's essentially the Korean version of Hannibal minus the Serial killers and cannibalism.

[floral-ashes]

Law students expect infinitely more coherence from the law than the law is able to provide.

Nothing about criminal law makes sense. Teaching criminal law is an exercise in pretending it makes sense just long enough for students to be able to write an exam about it.

My internal monologue during course preparation: “Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, I hope my students don’t ask about this.”

It’s not that I don’t know the topic well enough to answer. It’s that I have a table of Supreme Court decisions where they give five different answers to the question.

And yes, of course, I can just tell them it doesn’t make sense. I can remind them that the system exists to reproduce racial capitalism, not to make sense. But that’s deeply dissatisfying to most of them. They want certainty, otherwise they feel like they’re not on track to becoming a competent lawyer.

[yukiiah]

🪽🪽🪽

[lesdrawsposts]

Broken color oc (finally)

old oc redesign