This book considers the proper nature and scope of criminal responsibility in the light of its institutional and political role. Tadros begins by providing an account of the foundations, both ethical and political, of criminal responsibility, and moves on to reconsider some of the central doctrines of criminal responsibility.
Part 1 examines the nature of criminal responsibility by employing a distinctive new conception of autonomy. Tadros explores the nature of autonomy, and asks what it means to respect autonomy. Building upon this consideration of autonomy, Tadros then explores the central conditions of responsibility. He provides the first systematic consideration of the relationship between criminal responsibility and liberal political theory, showing how the conditions of responsibility are articulated in, and restrained by, the institutional setting of the criminal law.
In Part 2, Tadros moves on to consider some of the central doctrines of criminal responsibility. He examines the proper nature and role of causation, intentions, and beliefs; asking whether these concepts should be understood as descriptive or normative. The book moves on to provide a systematic normative investigation of the nature and role of criminal omissions and criminal defences. Included are: a thorough account of the different ways in which mental disorders might ground defences, the nature of justification defences, the different kinds of excuse claim and the role that particular characteristics of the accused might have on the standards which the defendant must have met to escape criminal responsibility.
Preface Introduction Part 1: The Character of Criminal Responsibility 1. The Nature of Responsibility 2. Choice, Character and Capacity 3. Communication and the Character of Criminal Responsibility 4. The Structure of Criminal Responsibility Part 2: Doctrines of Criminal Responsibility 5. Exemptions from Responsibility: Natural, Social and Political 6. The Nature of Causation 7. Criminal Omissions: Culpability, Responsibility and Liberty 8. The Significance of Intentions 9. The Ethics of Belief 10. Reality and Appearance in Justification Defences 11. The Characters of Excuse 12: Excusing the Mentally Disordered 13: Shifting Standards and Criminal Responsibility
Victor Tadros is Professor of Law at the University of Warwick
Reviews for Criminal Responsibility
..outlines a philosophically rich account of the conditions under which someone might legitimately be held liable for committing a (serious crime), before bringing that account to bear on a variety of doctrines from the general part of the criminal law..the chapters are philosophically sophisticated, engagingly well-written, and frequently persuasive. The Cambridge Law Journal Tadros offers a timely and refreshing account of the subject, and advances his own theory on the relationship between personal autonomy and criminal acts. The British Journal of Criminology
