In collaboration with the criminal law faculty, the Criminal Justice Practice and Policy Institute was founded to improve the practice of criminal law through scholarship, practice skills training and engagement in policy reform. The Institute connects alumni working in criminal law with interested students to provide the legal and practical skills training needed to be successful.
Through the expertise and professional experience of the full time and adjunct faculty, the work of the Institute covers white collar crime, national security, public defense, prosecution, criminal justice policy, and other areas of domestic and international criminal law.
The Institute also coordinates with the other highly successful programs at the Washington College of Law, including the Weinstein Trial Advocacy Program, the War Crimes Research Office, the Criminal Justice Clinic, and the Prison Rape Elimination Project.
The Institute collaborates with other members of the criminal law faculty through the Criminal Law Faculty Practice Group to provide career and professional development opportunities to aspiring criminal law practitioners.
Andrew E. Taslitz, founder and director of the Criminal Justice Practice and Policy Institute, passed away after a courageous bout with cancer on February 9, 2014. One of the most revered and beloved professors in the Washington College of Law family, Professor Taslitz ("Taz") had a profound impact on both his students and the legal community as a whole.
After joining WCL faculty in fall 2012, he helped launch the Institute in 2013 and became its Director. Professor Taslitz dedicated more than 20 years to legal academia; in addition to teaching at American University, he taught at Howard University for the majority of his career, as well as at Duke University, and Villanova University. He was named as one of the twenty-six best law teachers in America in Professor Michael Hunter Schwartz’s book, What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press 2013).
“The work of the Institute is aimed at law reform, whether changing the law on the books or altering the policies and behaviors that impact the criminal justice system.”
Andrew E. Taslitz