Little has been written by lawyers about the effect of provocation on culpability for homicide in English law, yet the question of what our moral attitudes should be towards someone who kills or injures another in anger has been a source of lively debate for centuries. The first philosophical inquiry into the moral character of actions in anger, it seeks to resolve the philosophical controversies generated by setting them in the context of an examination of the place of anger in human nature throughout history. A previously unexplored area of research, this work breaks new ground in its use...

Based on one of the largest observational studies of legal professional practice ever conducted, this book refutes the common conception of criminal cases as a fight between adversaries of equal strength, in which defense lawyers offset the intrusive potential of the State. The authors set their study against a background of the professionalization of criminal justice and the rapidly expanding state funding for criminal defense services. They examine the processes by which lawyers are educated and trained and make a detailed analysis of how cases are handled. The research reveals the...

The role of the public prosecutor in sentencing has become the subject of intense debate in recent years. In this original study the author assesses the influence of the public prosecutor in Scotland, the Netherlands, England and Wales and Germany over the process of sentencing offenders in the criminal justice system. This study offers a detailed analysis of prosecutorial power to issue sanctions, such as fines, warnings and referrals to rehabilitation at the pre-trial stage, and develops three new models of justice seeking to analyze and explain the increasing use of prosecutorial power. It...

This book addresses the retributive and "orthodox subjectivist" theories that dominate criminal justice theory alongside recent "revisionist" and "postmodern" approaches. Norrie argues that all these approaches, together with their faults and contradictions, stem from their orientation to themes in Kantian moral philosophy. He explores an alternative relational or dialectical approach; examines the work of Ashworth, Duff, Fletcher, Moore, Smith, and Williams; and considers key doctrinal issues.

Mental condition defenses have been used in several high-profile and controversial criminal trials in recent years. indeed, mental abnormality is increasingly an important yet complex source of defense within the criminal trial process.
The author offers a detailed critical analysis of those defenses within the Criminal Law where the accused relies on some form of mental abnormality as a source of defense. Topics covered include: the defenses of automatism, insanity, diminished responsibility, and infanticide; self-induced incapacity; and the doctrine of fault. It also includes a chapter...

The present volume draws together original and significant essays from a number of leading authorities which identify areas of the modern criminal law where there are significant conceptual difficulties. The project developed from a series of seminars in Cambridge University, in which leading Anglo-American philosophers, criminal lawyers and legal theorists explored subjects such as attempts, intention, justification, excuses, coercion, complicity, drug-dealing and criminal harm. The topics covered in this impressive collection were chosen for their topicality as well as their theoretical and...

Andrew von Hirsch addresses a number of emerging conceptual questions concerning the proportionality of criminal sentences, an approach that is gaining influence worldwide including in England where the Criminal Justice Act of 1991 made proportionality the primary criterion for determining sentences. This study deals with how the idea of penal censure justifies proportionate sentences, how a penalty scale should be "anchored" in order to reduce overall punishment levels, how non-custodial penalties should be graded and used, and how political pressures impinge on sentencing policies. It...

The Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice series covers all aspects of criminal law and procedure including criminal evidence. The scope of the series is wide, encompassing both practical and theoretical works.
This volume is a thematic collection of essays on sentencing theory by leading writers. The essays consider several issues affecting the discipline including the underlying justifications for the imposition of punishment by the State, areas of sentencing policy that have given rise to particular difficulty, such as the sentencing of drug offenders, the rationale for...

This book reflects the belief that a careful study of the Law of Attempts should be both interesting in itself, as well as being a productive route into a number of larger and deeper issues in criminal law theory and in the philosophy of action. By identifying the legal doctrines which courts and legislatures have developed or adopted, the author goes on to ask whether and how they can be rationalized or rendered persuasive. Such an approach involves paying detailed attention to cases. The book is also unusual in that it grapples with English, Scots and US law, showing great breadth of...

Expert evidence presents a number of challenges to the legal system. Drawing on work in psychology, the philosophy and sociology of science, probability theory, forensic science, as well as on a broad spectrum of legal writings, Redmayne looks at these challenges and shows how to overcome them.