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52MercyIn John Deigh & David Dolinko (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of the Criminal Law, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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40The virtues and vices of virtue jurisprudenceIn Timothy Chappell (ed.), Values and virtues: Aristotelianism in contemporary ethics, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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10Action and Criminal ResponsibilityIn Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Action, Blackwell. pp. 331-7. 2010.
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41Responsibility and liability in criminal lawIn Matthew H. Kramer, Claire Grant, Ben Colburn & Antony Hatzistavrou (eds.), The legacy of H.L.A. Hart: legal, political, and moral philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2008.
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39Philosophy and 'the life of the law'Journal of Applied Philosophy 26 (3): 245-258. 2009.abstract Focusing on the criminal law, I discuss three ways in which analytical philosophers might contribute to the development or health of the law (and of legal theory). The first is as humble under-labourers, who seek only to clarify legal rules and doctrines, but not to criticise them. This modest conception of the role of philosophy, however, proves to be untenable: clarification must become rational reconstruction — an attempt to make rational sense of the law; and rational reconstruction…Read more
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77Excuses, moral and legal: a comment on Marcia Baron’s ‘excuses, excuses’Criminal Law and Philosophy 1 (1): 49-55. 2007.Marcia Baron has offered an illuminating and fruitful discussion of extra-legal excuses. What is particularly useful, and particularly important, is her focus on our excusatory practices—on the ways and contexts in which we make, offer, accept, bestow and reject excuses: if we are to reach an adequate understanding of excuses, their implications and their grounds, we must attend to the roles that they can play in our human activities and relationships—and to the complexities and particularities …Read more
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96Crime, prohibition, and punishmentJournal of Applied Philosophy 19 (2). 2002.Nigel Walker’s first principle of criminalization declares that ‘Prohibitions should not be included in the criminal law for the sole purpose of ensuring that breaches of them are visited with retributive punishment’. I argue that we should reject this principle, for ‘mala prohibita’ as well as for ‘mala in se’: conduct should be criminalized in order to ensure (as far as we reasonably can) that those who engage in it receive retributive punishment. In the course of the argument, I show why we s…Read more
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27Whose Luck is it Anyway?In Christopher M. V. Clarkson & Sally Cunningham (eds.), Criminal Liability for Non-Aggressive Death, Ashgate. pp. 61-78. 2008.First paragraph: Dangerous driving attracts a maximum penalty of a heavy fine, or in the most serious cases up to six months’ imprisonment; but if it causes death, the maximum penalty is fourteen years’ imprisonment. Careless driving attracts a maximum penalty of a level 4 fine; driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs attracts a maximum penalty of a level 5 fine and/or up to six months’ imprisonment: but if someone causes death by careless driving when under the influence of drink o…Read more
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91Absolute Principles and Double EffectAnalysis 36 (2). 1976.I argue that hanink's account of the principle of double effect ("some light on double effect," "analysis", volume 35, number 5) is inadequate, and rests on the mistaken assumption that the criteria for distinguishing acts from each other, intention from foresight, acting from refraining, can be specified independently of any moral perspective. i try to indicate the way to a better understanding of these distinctions, and the essential features of the kind of absolutist morality which invokes th…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Criminal Law |
Philosophy of Law, Miscellaneous |