Details
- A comprehensive examination of the relationship between the substantive criminal law and the philosophy of action
- Written by one of the foremost Anglo-American legal theorists
In print for the first time in over ten years, Act and Crimeprovides a unified account of the theory of action presupposed by both Anglo-American criminal law and the morality that underlies it. The book defends the view that human actions are always volitionally caused bodily movements and nothing else. The theory is used to illuminate three major problems in the drafting and the interpretation of criminal codes: 1) what the voluntary act requirement both does and should require; 2) what complex descriptions of actions prohibited by criminal codes both do and should require (in addition to the doing of a voluntary act); and 3) when two actions are 'the same' for purposes of assessing whether multiple prosecutions and multiple punishments are warranted. The book both contributes to the development of a coherent theory of action in philosophy, and it provides both legislators and judges (and the lawyers who argue to both) a grounding in three of the most basic elements of criminal liability.
Readership: Students and scholars in the philosophy of law, particularly in criminal and tort law.
Preface to the Paperback Edition1: Introduction: Criminal Law's Three Conduct RequirementsPart I: Basic Acts and the Act Requirement2: The Doctrinal Unity of the Act Requirement3: The Orthodox View of the Act Requirement and Its Normative Defence4: The Metaphysics of Basic Acts I: The Existence of Actions5: The Metaphysics of Basic Acts II: The Identity of Actions with Bodily Movements6: The Metaphysics of Basic Acts III: Volitions as the Essential Sources of ActionsPart II: Complex Action Descriptions and the Actus Reus Requirement7: The Doctrinal Basis of the Actus Reus Requirement8: Unity in Complex Action Description and in the Actus Reus Requirement9: The Normative Basis for the Actus Reus Requirement10: The Metaphysics of Complex Actions I: The Dependence of Complex Actions on Basic Acts11: The Metaphysics of Complex Actions II: The Identity of Complex Actions with Basic ActsPart III: The Identity Conditions of Actions and the Double Jeopardy Requirement12: The Doctrinal and Normative Basis of the Double Jeopardy Requirement13: Legal, Moral, and Metaphysical Notions of the 'Sameness' of Action-Types14: Legal, Moral, and Metaphysical Notions of the 'Sameness' of Act-Tokens.
Michael S. Moore, Charles R. Walgreen Jr., University Chair and Centre for Advanced Study Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Illinois
"Michael Moore has produced the finest and most comprehensive treatment of the connection between the substantive criminal law and that highly specialized branch of philosophy that deals with human action. Anyone with a serious interest in the relationship between these two areas has long awaited the careful attention provided by Moore's excellent book. Act and Crime sets the standard against which subsequent contributions will be measured; quite simply, there exists no book-length examination of these issues to rival Moore's." - Douglas Husak, Criminal Law Forum
"...one of America's leading legal theorists...a book that repays close study and which should retain its appeal for all students of the criminal law for many years to come." - Paul Roberts, The Criminal Law Review
