The Structures of Criminal Law

Criminalization is a new series arising from an interdisciplinary investigation into the issue of criminalization, focusing on the principles and goals that should guide decisions about what kinds of conduct are to be criminalized, and the forms that criminalization should take. Developing a normative theory of criminalization, the six volumes will tackle the key questions at the heart of issue: By reference to what principles and goals should legislations decide what to criminalize? How should criminal wrongs be classified and differentiated? And how should law enforcement officials apply the law's specification of offences?

The second volume in the series concerns itself with the structures of criminal law in three different senses. The first examines the internal structure of the criminal law itself and the questions posed by familiar distinctions between which offences are typically analysed. These questions of classification include discussion of the growing range of crimes and the problems posed by this broadening of definition. Should traditional ideas and conceptions of the criminal law be reshaped in light of recent developments or should these developments be criticized and refuted?

Structures of criminal law also refer to the place of the criminal law within the larger structure of the law. Here the book examines the relationships with and between the criminal law and other aspects of law, particularly private law and public law. It also looks at how the criminal law is made, and by whom.

Finally the third sense of structure is outlined - the relationships between legal structures and social and political structures. What place does the criminal law have within the existing political and social landscapes? What are the influences, both political and social, upon the criminal law, and should they be allowed to influence the law in this fashion? What is its proper role?

Focussing not only on the questions about the criminal law's proper scope, but also on crucial questions about how crimes should be structured, defined, and classified, this book provides a deeper understanding of criminalization.

R A Duff has taught in the Department of Philosophy, University of Stirling, since 1970. His research focuses on the philosophy of criminal law, and he has published widely on penal theory, including; Philosophical Foundations of the Criminal Law (co-edited with Stuart Green, OUP 2011); Trials and Punishments (CUP, 1986) and Punishment, Communication and Community (OUP, 2001); on the structure and principles of criminal liability with titles including Intention, Agency and Criminal Liability (Blackwell, 1990), Criminal Attempts (OUP, 1996), and Answering for Crime (Hart, 2007); and on the criminal trial. His current projects include a book on The Realm of the Criminal Law.


Lindsay Farmer works on the relationship between criminal law, legal theory and legal history, looking at how historical changes in the institutions and practices of the criminal law do and should shape normative accounts of criminal law. His book Criminal Law, Tradition and Legal Order (CUP, 1997) examines the development of Scots criminal law and its relation to national identity. He is currently working on a historical account of theories of criminalization. He has been professor of law at the University of Glasgow since 1999.


S.E. Marshall is a professor of philosophy at the University of Stirling. She co-edited the three -volume project The Trial on Trial with R.A. Duff, L. Farmer, and V. Tadros (Hart 2007), serves on the Management Committee of the Philosophical Quarterly, and is President of the UK Association for Legal and Social Philosophy.


Massimo Renzo works primarily in legal theory and political philosophy. His main research interests are in the philosophical foundation of criminal law, international justice, state legitimacy, and political obligation. He is a lecturer at York Law School, and is on the editorial board of Criminal Law and Philosophy.


Victor Tadros works primarily on the philosophy of criminal law, criminal justice and punishment. He also has interests in general jurisprudence, moral and political philosophy. He has two published books Criminal Responsibility (OUP, 2005) and The Ends of Harm(OUP, 2011), and he is also writing a book for the Criminalization series entitled Wrongs and Crimes. Prior to his appointment as professor of criminal law and legal theory at the University of Warwick, he held posts at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh.