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6Philosophy and the Criminal Law: Principle and Critique (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 1998.Five pre-eminent legal theorists tackle a range of fundamental questions on the nature of the philosophy of criminal law. Their essays explore the extent to which and the ways in which our systems of criminal law can be seen as rational and principled. The essays discuss some of the principles by which, it is often thought, a system of law should be structured, and they ask whether our own systems are genuinely principled or riven by basic contradictions, reflecting deeper political and social c…Read more
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78Review essay / justice, mercy, and forgivenessCriminal Justice Ethics 9 (2): 51-63. 1990.Jeffrie G Murphy & Jean Hampton, Forgiveness and Mercy Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988, 194 pp. Kathleen Dean Moore, Pardons: Justice, Mercy, and the Public Interest New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, 271 pp
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15Criminal Responsibility and its HistoryCriminal Law and Philosophy 9 (3): 395-396. 2015.The original versions of the five papers in this Symposium were delivered and discussed at a workshop at the University of Minnesota Law School on Criminal Responsibility and its History. One of the aims of the workshop was to bring together scholars working on the history of the criminal law and scholars whose main focus is on issues in normative criminal law theory, to explore the ways in which they can learn from each other, and to promote a kind of dialogue between historical and normative t…Read more
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5Realism and Imagination in Ethics By Sabina Lovibond Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983,238 pp., £15.00 (review)Philosophy 59 (230): 541-542. 1984.
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230Blame, moral standing and the legitimacy of the criminal trialRatio 23 (2): 123-140. 2010.I begin by discussing the ways in which a would-be blamer's own prior conduct towards the person he seeks to blame can undermine his standing to blame her. This provides the basis for an examination of a particular kind of 'bar to trial' in the criminal law – of ways in which a state or a polity's right to put a defendant on trial can be undermined by the prior misconduct of the state or its officials. The examination of this often neglected legal phenomenon illuminates some central features of …Read more
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74The Intrusion of MercyOhio State Journal of Criminal Law 4 361-87. 2007.On the basis of a communicative theory of criminal punishment, I show how mercy has a significant but limited role to play in the criminal law—in particular (although not only) in criminal sentencing. Mercy involves an intrusion into the realm of criminal law of values and concerns that are not themselves part of the perspective of criminal law: a merciful sentencer acts beyond the limits of her legal role, on the basis of moral considerations that conflict with the demands of penal justice. Som…Read more
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205Guiding Commitments and Criminal Liability for AttemptsCriminal Law and Philosophy 6 (3): 411-427. 2012.A critical discussion of Gideon Yaffe's "guiding commitment" account of attempts, with special reference to attempts in the criminal law.
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21Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Law (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2011.25 leading contemporary theorists of criminal law tackle a range of foundational issues about the proper aims and structure of the criminal law in a liberal democracy. The challenges facing criminal law are many. There are crises of over-criminalization and over-imprisonment; penal policy has become so politicized that it is difficult to find any clear consensus on what aims the criminal law can properly serve; governments seeking to protect their citizens in the face of a range of perceived thr…Read more
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PunishmentIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The Oxford handbook of practical ethics, Oxford University Press. 2003.
Areas of Specialization
Criminal Law |
Philosophy of Law, Miscellaneous |