Offences and Defences: Selected Essays in the Philosophy of Criminal Law

John Gardner's writings on the theory of criminal law have had a significant impact on the way that this subject is understood by legal scholars and philosophers. This book collects together a selection of his best-known and most provocative pieces. John Gardner tackles persistent and troublesome questions about the philosophical foundations of the criminal law. Which wrongs are suitable to be crimes and why? What are the conditions of criminal responsibility, and how do they relate to the conditions of moral responsibility? What does it take to be complicit in another's wrongdoing? Should crimes ever be excused, and if so, on what basis? How, if at all, should the criminal law adapt to conditions of social and cultural diversity? The issues raised in these essays have a significance extending beyond the law. What does it mean to be a responsible agent and why does it matter? Is my moral character only or mostly my own business? Is there a difference between being reasonable and being rational? These and many other moral problems lurk in the background of the criminal law, and the pieces in this book bring them into the foreground. Theoretical writings on the criminal law have often been dominated by a preoccupation with the justification of criminal punishment. This work is different. Although it discusses the legitimacy of criminal punishment it proceeds on the footing that the criminal law does many important things apart from punishing people. In particular, Gardner argues that the criminal law provides an important forum for people to explain themselves. Such a forum would be important, argues Gardner, even if criminal punishment were to be abolished.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements 1: The Wrongness of Rape 2: Rationality and the Rule of Law in Offences Against the Person 3: Complicity and Causality 4: In Defence of Defences 5: Justifications and Reasons 6: The Gist of Excuses 7: Fletcher on Offences and Defences 8: Provocation and Pluralism 9: The Mark of Responsibility 10: The Functions and Justifications of Criminal Law and Punishment 11: Crime: in Proportion and in Perspective 12: Reply to Critics Index

About the Author :
John Gardner is Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of University College, Oxford. He has held visiting positions at Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, the Australian National University, the University of Texas, and Princeton University. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals including the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies and the Journal of International Criminal Justice. Qualified as a Barrister in England & Wales, he has been a Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple since 2003.

Review :
This collection, of eleven of John Gardner's papers in philosophy of criminal law from the last fifteen years, makes clear how distinctive and incisive his contributions have been to our understanding of the structure and proper aims of criminal law, of how criminal offences should be analysed and defined, and of the character and significance of responsibility. It also shows how much criminal law theory depends on, and is enriched by, a serious engagement with deeper issues in moral and political philosophy (which is one reason why the collection should interest moral and political philosophers even if they are not directly interested in criminal law). The collection is made yet more valuable by the addition of a substantial 'Reply to Critics'. Antony Duff, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stirling