The Morality of the Criminal Law. Two Lectures.

HART, H[erbert]. L[ionel]. A[dolphus]. (1907-1992):

Published by Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University/ London: Oxford University Press, 1965., 1965

About this Item

First trade edition. 54 pp. Original cloth. Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket (unclipped). Lionel Cohen Lectures, Tenth Series. The true First Edition was published in 1964 with a single imprint, omitting the London: Oxford University Press. 'In the first lecture [The Enforcement of Morality, pp. 31-54] he set out the case for reforming the law on suicide, abortion, and homosexuality among the liberal, decriminalizing lines defended in Law, Liberty and Morality [1963]: 'The criminal law is a clumsy instrument and we wield it largely in the dark.' In the second lecture [Changing Conceptions of Responsibility, pp. 5-29], he turned to the topic of how criminal law should deal with those suffering from mental abnormalities, this time taking as one of his principal targets the theories of Barbara Wootton. Like Herbert, Wootton took a utilitarian view of the overall aims of the criminal justice system. Unlike Herbert, she argued that the specific goal of sentencing should be rehabilitation rather than deterrence. This orientation of the system towards reform of the offender rather than punishment meant in her view that criminal law should dispense with proof of individual responsibility, confining the trial's attention to the facts of the offence and deferring any consideration of the offender's state of mind to the much more important sentencing stage, where the focus should be how to determine the best means of treatment or rehabilitation. In Herbert's view, this violated fundamental liberal values: it was an overpaternalistic approach which failed to take individual agency seriously. It therefore prejudiced what was genuinely moral abut criminal law. This, he argued, is not the fact that its content necessarily reflects moral values, but that its method of judging and ascribing blame respects individual freedom and responsibility. Two of the lectures [those described above] were subsequently published as The Morality of the Criminal Law (Nicola Lacey, A Life of H. L. A. Hart, The Nightmare and the Noble Dream, 2004, 266-7).

Seller Inventory # 15567

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Morality of the Criminal Law. Two Lectures.
• Publisher: Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University/ London: Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Publication Date: 1965
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine