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[...]... amounts to inthe context of thecriminal law, but will not have space to defend it in detail.38 Two further limits on the scope of this book should be noted here: both concern the scope of thecriminallawThe first is that I will focus on thelawinthe books’, whilst recognising the truth inthe by now clichéd distinction between thelawinthe books’ andthelawin action’: between thelaw as... 13:10:11 2007 A Normative Theory of Criminal Law? inthe way of investigation and preparation; policing; and issues concerning criminalisation.32 This book is, however, focused on the substantive criminal law: although it will say something about criminalisation and about aspects of thecriminal trial, it will say almost nothing about criminal punishment, or about policing andthecriminal process As far... another distinction that seems both important and uncertain: that between the general part of thecriminallawand whatever underlying moral or political values may be relevant to the normative appraisal of thecriminallaw Consider for instance the supposed principle that criminalliability requires an act.18 That principle could be an explicit part of thecriminal law, if it was included inthe criminal. .. theory of what?’, there are two issues to note The first concerns the scope of criminallaw Theories and textbooks of criminallaw often implicitly take it to consist inthe substantive criminallaw (the general andthe special parts):31 but any adequate ‘theory of criminallaw would also need to deal with such matters as criminal punishment; thecriminal process—including not just the trial, but... responsibility, in particular in deciding what efforts to make to enforce which laws, and where and on whom to focus their investigative and prosecutorial efforts.39 Such features of thelawin action often do not change thelaw s content, since there is a real distinction between the content of thelawand how that law with that content is applied and enforced: if, for instance, a police force reduces the resources... represented in statutes, codes, textbooks and treatises, andthelaw as applied and used by the police and other officials as they enforce thelawand investigate and prosecute crimes Theorists must of course recognise the extent to which, in any practicable human system, the officials whose responsibility it is to enforce and administer thelaw will have a quite extensive discretion in discharging that responsibility, ... interlocutors must remain an open question When legal theorists ask what thecriminallaw ought to be, they must be asking about ‘our’ criminal law, but the temporal and cultural scope of that ‘our’ is open for exploration and extension We are asking, not what thecriminallaw ought to be at all times andin all contexts, but what thecriminallaw ought to be in a modern liberal democracy: what kind of account... Duff: Answeringfor PAGE: 5 SESS: 3 OUTPUT: Fri Oct 19 13:10:11 2007 The ‘General Part’ andthe ‘Special Part’ find it either inthe existing criminal law, or inthe existing political morality, of the society whose law it is, but argue that it ought to be a part of their political morality Natural Law theorists might also argue that, even if it is not in fact part of the law, it is a principle that the. .. might be a principle that helps us to make best sense of the decisions that courts make in interpreting and applying thelaw (and of the laws that they are interpreting and applying), and that we can therefore identify as implicit inthelaw Such an identification would be the outcome of a process of ‘rational reconstruction’—a process of analysis and interpretation that aims to make the best possible... render thecriminallaw rational and principled As far as the possibility of such a theory is concerned, if we think about the broad scope of thecriminallawandthe diverse types of conduct that it covers; if we think too about the implications of the by now familiar idea that we live in times of value pluralism and conflict, and that in our political (and thus also our legal) lives we face the competing . 10/9
JOBNAME: Duff: Answering for PAGE: 3 SESS: 3 OUTPUT: Fri Oct 19 13:10:11 2007
Answering for Crime
Responsibility and Liability in the
Criminal Law
R A Duff
Columns. xv
INTRODUCTION 1
1. The ‘General Part’ and the ‘Special Part’ 1
2. A Normative Theory of Criminal Law? 6
3. Answering for Crime 15
1. RESPONSIBILITY AND