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Law in Context
Crime, Reason and History: A Critical Introduction to Criminal Law
Many books seek to explain the general principles of the criminal law. Crime, Reason and History stands out and alone as a book that critically and concisely analyses these principles and comes up with a different viewpoint: that the law is shaped by social history and therefore systematically structured around conflicting elements. Updated extensively to include two new chapters on loss of control and self defence and with an extended treatment of offence and defence, this new edition combines challenging and sophisticated analysis with accessibility.
- GenresNonfiction
424 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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January 12, 2016
Notes:
Ch. 1 - The aim of the book is to understand the contradiction of criminal law based in pure rationality and, at the same time, deeply rooted in historical context.
p. 17 - The outcome of criminal cases is a matter of chance, not only because individual judges have their own prerogatives, but also because historical and cultural circumstance are key to criminal law. To understand criminal law, we must understand the structures that have created it.
p. 20 - penal systems uphold political systems, first and foremost
p. 21 - idea of punishment proportionality from Cesare Beccaria
p. 22 - the idea of punishment as a loss of rights (some abstract) as opposed to a mere infliction of pain.
p. 24 - the law must exist and be clear to all before implementation through courts, etc.
p. 29 - reformers thought of law as abstracted from social class, but criminality has always been intimately tied with social class.
****p. 33 - the legal process also involves rationalizing in the pejorative sense "papering over the logical cracks in order to reach a result not justified on the rules."
Quoting Williams "A judgment will marshal the authorities in a manner suggesting, to the uninitiated, that the court is ineluctibly bound to reach the conclusion it does reach, when to the discerning eye it is often nor more than what is popularly called 'special pleading'
p. 35 - "Thus the historical roots of the conflict between a logic of individual fairness, a universal dispensation of rights and liberties, and a functional concern for social order carry through to our day."
Ch. 1 - The aim of the book is to understand the contradiction of criminal law based in pure rationality and, at the same time, deeply rooted in historical context.
p. 17 - The outcome of criminal cases is a matter of chance, not only because individual judges have their own prerogatives, but also because historical and cultural circumstance are key to criminal law. To understand criminal law, we must understand the structures that have created it.
p. 20 - penal systems uphold political systems, first and foremost
p. 21 - idea of punishment proportionality from Cesare Beccaria
p. 22 - the idea of punishment as a loss of rights (some abstract) as opposed to a mere infliction of pain.
p. 24 - the law must exist and be clear to all before implementation through courts, etc.
p. 29 - reformers thought of law as abstracted from social class, but criminality has always been intimately tied with social class.
****p. 33 - the legal process also involves rationalizing in the pejorative sense "papering over the logical cracks in order to reach a result not justified on the rules."
Quoting Williams "A judgment will marshal the authorities in a manner suggesting, to the uninitiated, that the court is ineluctibly bound to reach the conclusion it does reach, when to the discerning eye it is often nor more than what is popularly called 'special pleading'
p. 35 - "Thus the historical roots of the conflict between a logic of individual fairness, a universal dispensation of rights and liberties, and a functional concern for social order carry through to our day."
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