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Fundamentals of Criminal Law: Responsibility, Culpability, and Wrongdoing

Fundamentals of Criminal Law: Responsibility, Culpability, and Wrongdoing

Author: Andrew Simester
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198853145
Published In: February 2021
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Description
Contents

Details

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.

The book 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.

Key Features:

Systematically explores how criminal law's major doctrines are grounded in deeper theoretical principles
Integrates arguments about the scope of those doctrines with a coherent, multifaceted theory
Explains the controversies about a wide range of legal doctrines, including causation, moral luck, necessity, negligence, omissions, and unknown/mistaken justifications

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations;

Part I: Groundwork

1. Crime, Responsibility, Culpability, and Wrongdoing

2. Structure and Nomenclature

3. Five Functions, and Two Kinds, of Mens Rea

Part II: Responsibility

4. Moral and Ascriptive Responsibilities

5. Causation

6. Why Not-doings are Special

7. Complicity