International Library of Essays on Criminal Law – serie

This volume contributes to the codification debate by bringing together research articles which compare and contrast the experience of countries which have a criminal code with those operating a case law system. The articles consider the criticisms that are often made of criminal code systems such as: the implicit restrictions on judicial discretion; the tendency towards inflexibility; the discrepancy that can develop between the theory and the development of the law in practice; and the potential difficulty of a criminal code fitting into a country’s domestic socio-legal culture. The advantages of the case law system are also considered such as reliance on the judiciary for the development of the nation’s criminal law as well as the ability to legislate on the problems of the day by enacting topical laws for distinct subjects. Whereas wholesale codification is a much more accepted phenomenon in the continental law traditions, simplistic transplants from one legal tradition can result in systemic frictions and other anomalies which may offend domestic culture. This collection is an invaluable reference tool which supports the discussion over codification and promotes better understanding across the common law/civil law divide.

The significance of fundamental individual rights to substantive criminal law, criminal procedure law and sentencing law is undeniable for anyone who is familiar with the criminal justice system. The fourteen essays selected for this volume portray and discuss the meaning and rationale of those human rights that are most relevant to that system. They have been chosen for their high quality, timeless approach and general attention to issues that are of universal interest and thus not too closely related to the technicalities of a specific criminal justice system. In combination with the introduction to this volume, the essays cover almost the entire criminal justice system and offer a general overview as well as an in-depth examination of criminal law and human rights. As a result, this volume is essential for researchers, lecturers and students concerned with the tensions and harmonies between the values the criminal justice system and human rights respectively serve.

The last fifty years have seen a notable expansion of philosophical scrutiny of the fundamental concepts and structures of Anglo-American criminal law and this volume offers a selection from journal articles and book chapters of significant and influential work in this field. Taken together, these essays illustrate how contemporary philosophical reflection on criminal law has broadened its focus beyond the longstanding and still active debate over the moral legitimacy of punishment. In addition to punishment, the subjects also covered in this collection range from excuse and justification defenses and the conundrums of attempt liability to the bases of culpability and criminal responsibility and the appropriate limits of the criminal law. The introduction clarifies the contexts in which these subjects are discussed, and the volume includes an extensive bibliography.

The nineteen articles and essays reproduced in this volume explore the theoretical foundations of criminal trial procedure. Key concepts, and their theoretical and practical significance, are elucidated in a substantial new introduction, setting out the methodological building blocks of criminal procedure scholarship. Central to this enterprise is an effort to rethink traditional common law conceptions of the Law of Evidence. The volume is divided into four parts, addressing disciplinary parameters, normative underpinnings, legal epistemology, and institutional jurisprudence, to create an innovative intellectual framework for theorising criminal trial procedure. It showcases classic writings on criminal procedure law and adjudication alongside the best of recent theoretically-informed procedural scholarship, thereby placing the criminal trial in its broader political, social and institutional contexts. This collection both encapsulates and develops a jurisprudence of criminal trial procedure, conceived as applied political morality, with robust epistemological foundations and attuned to the contemporary challenges of cosmopolitan law.

Forensic science evidence and expert witness testimony play an increasingly prominent role in modern criminal proceedings. Science produces powerful evidence of criminal offending, but has also courted controversy and sometimes contributed towards miscarriages of justice. The twenty-six articles and essays reproduced in this volume explore the theoretical foundations of modern scientific proof and critically consider the practical issues to which expert evidence gives rise in contemporary criminal trials. The essays are prefaced by a substantial new introduction which provides an overview and incisive commentary contextualising the key debates. The volume begins by placing ’forensic science’ in interdisciplinary focus, with contributions from historical, sociological, Science and Technology Studies (STS), philosophical and jurisprudential perspectives. This is followed by closer examination of the role of forensic science and other expert evidence in criminal proceedings, exposing enduring tensions and addressing recent controversies in the relationship between science and criminal law. A third set of contributions considers the practical challenges of interpreting and communicating forensic science evidence. This perennial battle continues to be fought at the intersection between the logic of scientific inference and the psychology of the fact-finder’s ’common sense’ reasoning. Finally, the volume’s fourth group of essays evaluates the (limited) success of existing procedural reforms aimed at improving the reception of expert testimony in criminal adjudication, and considers future prospects for institutional renewal - with a keen eye to comparative law models and experiences, success stories and cautionary tales.