Who Said Criminal Law Can't be Fun?

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Faculty member John Rubin is known for his expertise in criminal law and indigent defense, his creation of the Collateral Consequences Assessment Tool (C-CAT), and his many contributions to the School of Government's North Carolina Criminal Law Blog.

What many may not know about Rubin is his love of music (and his skills as a musician). And that's where his passions overlapped in a recent blog post, "Criminal Law Music." He cites songs about homicide, such as Neil Young's Down by the River; songs about controlled substances, including the Grateful Dead's Truckin'; and songs about stalking, motor vehical law, and prison, among others. Nearly 80 comments to the blog post add to Rubin's list of criminal law music, and on Friday, June 30, he was interviewed about the blog post on WHUP's True Bill show, where many of the songs were played.

"It's not surprising we have so much criminal law music," Rubin said. "Criminal law deals with the spectrum of human behavior."