Criminal Attempts (Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice) - Hardcover

Duff, R. A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019826268X ISBN 13: 9780198262688

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1997

Synopsis

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 research as well as philosophical sophistication. This is a work which is likely to become a seminal study and a major contribution to the study of law and legal philosophy.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This original treatment of the law of criminal attempts sets some of the problems about attempts in the context of deeper issues about the foundations of criminal liability. Duff begins with some persisting questions about the law of attempts. What should count as a criminal attempt? How severely should attempts be punished? Are there types of 'impossible attempt' which should not be criminal? These questions lead on to larger issues about the foundations of criminal liability. Why should we have a law of inchoate or nonconsummated crimes; and why should that law be a law of attempts? Should criminal liability be determined by purely 'subjective' criteria (for instance by the intentions and beliefs with which the agent acted); or should it also depend on the 'objective' or actual impact of his action on the world? Such questions lead to yet larger questions in the philosophy of action and in moral philosophy; about the nature of action, about culpability, about the significance of 'moral luck'. Duff articulates and defends an 'objectivist' account of criminal liability against the 'subjectivist' tendencies of much contemporary legal theory; and this account offers persuasive answers to the problems with which the book began.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019826268X
• ISBN 13: 9780198262688
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 448