Joel Samaha

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 topics course titled "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 before coming in 1971 to the University of Minnesota, where he served as Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies for four years, taught both television and radio courses in criminal justice, and co-taught a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar in legal and constitutional history. He was named Distinguished Teacher at the University of Minnesota in 1974. Professor Samaha's numerous publications include articles on the history of criminal justice published in professional history journals and law reviews, a book on LAW AND ORDER IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, and the highly successful CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, now in its Seventh Edition (Wadsworth).