Fundamentals of Criminal Law

Fundamentals of Criminal Law PDF Author: Andrew Simester
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192594605
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Written by a noted expert in criminal law, this book explores the philosophical underpinnings of the law's major doctrines concerning actus reus, mens rea, and defences, showing that they are not always driven by culpability. They are grounded also in principles of moral responsibility, ascriptive responsibility, and wrongdoing. As such, they engage wider debates about wrongdoing, and about the boundaries between liability and freedom. This multi-textured analysis allows this book to take more nuanced positions about many important controversies in criminal law. It argues, for example, that liability for omissions and for negligence-and even some strict liability elements-can sometimes be legitimate yet, at the same time, should be relatively rare. It also explains why principles of causation can differ in the criminal law from other contexts; what is wrong with the 'voluntary act' requirement; and why luck can affect the wrongs we commit without changing our degree of blameworthiness for committing them. The book concludes with an account of the major types of defences, and of how they interact with an agent's wrong and her underlying motivations. This volume presents a coherent and rich vision of the criminal law that, by its sheer breadth, makes a distinctive contribution to the literature, of interest to lawyers and philosophers alike.

Fundamentals of Criminal Law

Fundamentals of Criminal Law PDF Author: Andrew Simester
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192594605
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Get Book Here

Book Description
Written by a noted expert in criminal law, this book explores the philosophical underpinnings of the law's major doctrines concerning actus reus, mens rea, and defences, showing that they are not always driven by culpability. They are grounded also in principles of moral responsibility, ascriptive responsibility, and wrongdoing. As such, they engage wider debates about wrongdoing, and about the boundaries between liability and freedom. This multi-textured analysis allows this book to take more nuanced positions about many important controversies in criminal law. It argues, for example, that liability for omissions and for negligence-and even some strict liability elements-can sometimes be legitimate yet, at the same time, should be relatively rare. It also explains why principles of causation can differ in the criminal law from other contexts; what is wrong with the 'voluntary act' requirement; and why luck can affect the wrongs we commit without changing our degree of blameworthiness for committing them. The book concludes with an account of the major types of defences, and of how they interact with an agent's wrong and her underlying motivations. This volume presents a coherent and rich vision of the criminal law that, by its sheer breadth, makes a distinctive contribution to the literature, of interest to lawyers and philosophers alike.

Criminal Law

Criminal Law PDF Author: A. P. Simester
Publisher: Hart Publishing Limited
ISBN: 9781841133645
Category : Criminal law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Aimed at undergraduate law students seeking a firm grasp of doctrine and principle, this text combines theoretical precision and depth with a detailed exposition of the law.

Criminal Law Theory

Criminal Law Theory PDF Author: Stephen Shute
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199243495
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Concentrating upon those doctrines that make up the general part of the criminal law this collection of essays by leading American and British legal experts sheds theoretical light on key issues of contemporary relevance.

Offences and Defences

Offences and Defences PDF Author: John Gardner
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191566616
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
John Gardner's writings on the theory of criminal law have had a significant impact on the way that this subject is understood by legal scholars and philosophers. This book collects together a selection of his best-known and most provocative pieces. John Gardner tackles persistent and troublesome questions about the philosophical foundations of the criminal law. Which wrongs are suitable to be crimes and why? What are the conditions of criminal responsibility, and how do they relate to the conditions of moral responsibility? What does it take to be complicit in another's wrongdoing? Should crimes ever be excused, and if so, on what basis? How, if at all, should the criminal law adapt to conditions of social and cultural diversity? The issues raised in these essays have a significance extending beyond the law. What does it mean to be a responsible agent and why does it matter? Is my moral character only or mostly my own business? Is there a difference between being reasonable and being rational? These and many other moral problems lurk in the background of the criminal law, and the pieces in this book bring them into the foreground. Theoretical writings on the criminal law have often been dominated by a preoccupation with the justification of criminal punishment. This work is different. Although it discusses the legitimacy of criminal punishment it proceeds on the footing that the criminal law does many important things apart from punishing people. In particular, Gardner argues that the criminal law provides an important forum for people to explain themselves. Such a forum would be important, argues Gardner, even if criminal punishment were to be abolished.

Appraising Strict Liability

Appraising Strict Liability PDF Author: A. P. Simester
Publisher: Oxford Monographs on Criminal
ISBN: 9780199278510
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Strict liability is a controversial phenomenon in the criminal law because of its potential to convict blameless persons. Offences are said to impose strict liability when, in relation to one or more elements of the actus reus, there is no need for the prosecution to prove a corresponding mensrea or fault element. For example, in the 1986 case of Storkwain, the defendant chemists were convicted of selling controlled medicines without prescription simply upon proof that they had in fact done so. It was irrelevant that they neither knew nor had reason to suspect that the 'prescriptions'they fulfilled were forgeries. Thus strict liability offences have the potential to generate criminal convictions of persons who are morally innocent.Appraising Strict Liability is a collection of original contributions offering the first full-length consideration of the problem of strict liability in the criminal law. The chapters, including European and Anglo-American perspectives, provide a sustained and wide-ranging examination of thefundamental issues. They explore the definition of strict liability; the relationship between strict liability and blame, and its implications for the requirement for culpability in criminal law; the relevance of European and human rights jurisprudence; and the interaction between substantive rulesof strict liability and evidential presumptions.The breadth and depth of the contributions combine to present readers with a sophisticated analysis of the place and legitimacy of strict liability in the criminal law.

Core Concepts in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

Core Concepts in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice PDF Author: Kai Ambos
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108483399
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
A comparative and collaborative study of the foundational principles and concepts that underpin different domestic systems of criminal law.

Abuse of Process and Judicial Stays of Criminal Proceedings

Abuse of Process and Judicial Stays of Criminal Proceedings PDF Author: Andrew L.-T. Choo
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Criminal procedure
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This book is about the judicial discretion to stay criminal proceedings, and is the first full-length monograph to be published in England on the topic. It presents a fresh perspective on the discretion under consideration by setting the discretion against the general backdrop of the law of criminal evidence. In recent times, a number of evidence scholars have demonstrated persuasively that every exclusionary rule and exclusionary discretion in the law of criminal evidence can be explained by reference to the protection of the innocent from wrongful conviction and/or the protection of the moral integrity of the criminal process. It is demonstrated in this book that the judicial discretion to stay criminal proceedings can, and should, be viewed in the same way. A comparative perspective is adopted where appropriate, with particular reference being made to the jurisdictions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United States.

Criminally Ignorant

Criminally Ignorant PDF Author: Alexander Sarch
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190056576
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
The willful ignorance doctrine says defendants should sometimes be treated as if they know what they don't. This book provides a careful defense of this method of imputing mental states. Though the doctrine is only partly justified and requires reform, it also demonstrates that the criminal law needs more legal fictions of this kind. The resulting theory of when and why the criminal law can pretend we know what we don't has far-reaching implications for legal practice and reveals a pressing need for change.

Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law

Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law PDF Author: A P Simester
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781849464444
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 984

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Book Description
This is the fifth edition of the leading textbook on criminal law by Professors Simester, Spencer, Sullivan and Virgo. Simester and Sullivan is an outstanding account of modern English criminal law, combining detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law and it has become the set text in many leading universities. Additionally, the book is used as an important point of reference in academic writing and postgraduate research in England and abroad. Simester and Sullivan has been cited by appellate courts throughout the world. There have been a large number of important appellate decisions since the last edition of this work. This new case law, among other things, provides helpful guidance for the interpretation of offences under the Serious Crime Act 2007 and of the defence of loss of control provided by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. There have been significant developments in the laws relating to rape, self-defence and defence of property, and duress. Special mention should be made of the continuing stream of appellate cases regarding the nature and scope of secondary liability in the crimes of others.

Simester and Sullivan’s Criminal Law

Simester and Sullivan’s Criminal Law PDF Author: A P Simester
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1509926666
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1057

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Book Description
This is the new edition of the leading textbook on criminal law by Professors Simester and Sullivan, now co-written with Professors Spencer, Stark and Virgo. Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law is an outstanding account of modern English criminal law, combining detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law and it has become the set text in many leading universities. Additionally, the book is used as an important point of reference in academic writing and postgraduate research in England and abroad. Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law has been cited by appellate courts throughout the world. Review of Previous Edition: '... undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course. Since attaining international recognition and citation in appellate courts worldwide, the security of the text's position as a point of academic reference remains as steadfast as ever.' John Taggart, Criminal Law Review