Criminal Law & Constitutional Protections NextGen Bar Exam Study Guide

About Criminal Law & Constitutional Protections

Statutory crimes, defenses, and the constitutional protections of accused persons. NCBE flags 5 of its topics at memorize level; the rest lean on provided materials and reasoning.

From chapter 1, Mental States & General Principles

Almost every crime is built from two pieces: a bad act (the "actus reus") and a guilty mind (the "mens rea"). The prosecution must prove both — and it has to attach the right state of mind to the right part of the act. On the NextGen exam you will usually be handed the criminal statute itself and asked to apply it, so your job is less about memorizing a catalog of crimes and more about reading a statute carefully, spotting which mental state it demands, and testing the facts against it. This topic is the toolkit every other Criminal Law question leans on: what counts as a voluntary act, the ladder of mental states, when a mistake excuses, which court can hear the case, and who must prove what. Get fluent here and the specific crimes — homicide, theft, burglary — become plug-and-play.