Criminal Law
Joel Samaha is Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, The Supreme Court and the Constitution, and a special joint Sociology/History Department course entitled Is There a Wartime Exception to the Bill of Rights? He received his B.A., J.D., and Ph.D. from Northwestern University and studied under the late Sir Geoffrey Elton at Cambridge University, England. Professor Samaha was admitted to the Illinois Bar, briefly practiced law in Chicago, and then taught at UCLA. In 1971, he joined the University of Minnesota, where he served as Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies for four years, taught television and radio courses in criminal justice, co-taught a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar in legal and constitutional history, and was named Distinguished Teacher in 1974. Professor Samaha's works have appeared in Historical Journal, American Journal of Legal History, Minnesota Law Review, William Mitchell Law Review, and Journal of Social History.