This half module considers key philosophical issues relating to the substantive criminal justice system.

Imagine you were in a position to design and implement the perfect system of substantive criminal law. What goals would you set for your it (and how would you select them)? What features would your system of criminal law have? For instance, what sorts of things would you make criminal? How would you decide which people to make criminally liable? What role would consent play in your system? And what about defences; what would justify a seeming crime, and what would excuse it? What would happen to someone found criminally liable in your perfect system of criminal law; would you punish people, or try to reform them, or both, or neither? And how would you justify each of your answers?

These are just some of the fascinating questions we’ll consider in the half module on the Philosophy of Criminal Law. Grappling with these questions is not merely as an exercise in fantasy world building – our answers have very real repercussions on the world. Even if political disagreement would make it impossible to legislate for a ‘perfect’ criminal law system (whatever that is) having an ideal in place helps us know whether we are progressing towards, or straying from, our goals. In other words, our fantasy world building helps us critique the real world, and offer constructive suggestions to it. And that’s true not just in the domain of the criminal law – the philosophical skills that this module is designed to help you hone can be put to use in any domain of the law, and even outside the law.

Each week, we will have a two-hour long seminar, focusing on a discrete topic. The seminars will be used to develop an advanced understanding, and where appropriate, critique, of the ideas covered in the advance readings. The active participation of each student in classroom discussions is indispensable to achieving these goals, and so each student must be prepared to contribute actively in each seminar. This means that you must have done the prescribed readings in advance, and be willing to venture your opinions, both on the readings, and the ideas discussed therein, in the seminar room. We will be using small-group discussions, rotating on-call lists, and invited critical summaries to ensure that each seminar is lively and informative, and that all students are given an opportunity to make their ideas heard.