This fifteenth edition continues to focus on tools students must acquire to be effective criminal lawyers, including critical skills. The aim is to explore substantive principles and the trial context: the adversary system, how elements of crime are proved, principles of act and fault, legal justifications and excuses, and sentencing principles. Integrated throughout is a consideration of the impact of the Charter. The focus is on major sources: the Criminal Code itself and key judicial decisions. Learning is facilitated by notes, questions, problems and general review questions.In this edition we made a special effort to thoroughly update, re-edit, prune or delete dated material. Particularly major changes were made in chapters 1 and 4.