The Realm of Criminal Law

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Law, Criminal Procedure, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book The Realm of Criminal Law by R A Duff, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: R A Duff ISBN: 9780191058585
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: June 28, 2018
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: R A Duff
ISBN: 9780191058585
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: June 28, 2018
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

We are said to face a crisis of over-criminalization: our criminal law has become chaotic, unprincipled, and over-expansive. This book proposes a normative theory of criminal law, and of criminalization, that shows how criminal law could be ordered, principled, and restrained. The theory is based on an account of criminal law as a distinctive legal practice that functions to declare and define a set of public wrongs, and to call to formal public account those who commit such wrongs; an account of the role that such practice can play in a democratic republic of free and equal citizens; and an account of the central features of such a political community, and of the way in which it constitutes its public realm-its civil order. Criminal law plays an important, but limited, role in such a political community in protecting, but also partly constituting, its civil order. On the basis of this account, we can see how such a political community will decide what kinds of conduct should be criminalized - not by applying one or more of the substantive master principles that theorists have offered, but by considering which kinds of conduct fall within its public realm (as distinct from the private realms that are not the polity's business), and which kinds of wrong within that realm require this distinctive kind of response (rather than one of the other kinds of available response). The outcome of such a deliberative process will probably be a more limited, and a more rational and principled, criminal law.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

We are said to face a crisis of over-criminalization: our criminal law has become chaotic, unprincipled, and over-expansive. This book proposes a normative theory of criminal law, and of criminalization, that shows how criminal law could be ordered, principled, and restrained. The theory is based on an account of criminal law as a distinctive legal practice that functions to declare and define a set of public wrongs, and to call to formal public account those who commit such wrongs; an account of the role that such practice can play in a democratic republic of free and equal citizens; and an account of the central features of such a political community, and of the way in which it constitutes its public realm-its civil order. Criminal law plays an important, but limited, role in such a political community in protecting, but also partly constituting, its civil order. On the basis of this account, we can see how such a political community will decide what kinds of conduct should be criminalized - not by applying one or more of the substantive master principles that theorists have offered, but by considering which kinds of conduct fall within its public realm (as distinct from the private realms that are not the polity's business), and which kinds of wrong within that realm require this distinctive kind of response (rather than one of the other kinds of available response). The outcome of such a deliberative process will probably be a more limited, and a more rational and principled, criminal law.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book Living with Ageing and Dying by R A Duff
Cover of the book Opening Strategy by R A Duff
Cover of the book Media and the Making of Modern Germany by R A Duff
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers by R A Duff
Cover of the book A Dictionary of Journalism by R A Duff
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia by R A Duff
Cover of the book Stalin's Last Generation : Soviet Post-War Youth and the Emergence of Mature Socialism by R A Duff
Cover of the book The Political Economy of Italy's Decline by R A Duff
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of the Georgian Theatre 1737-1832 by R A Duff
Cover of the book Public Law by R A Duff
Cover of the book Making Things Up by R A Duff
Cover of the book A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume III by R A Duff
Cover of the book A Grain of Faith by R A Duff
Cover of the book Self-Knowledge for Humans by R A Duff
Cover of the book The Philosophy of Poetry by R A Duff
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy