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Emotions And The Veil Of Voluntarism: The Loss Of Judgment In Canadian Criminal Defences, Benjamin Berger

Articles & Book Chapters

In this perspective piece, the author attacks the notion of "moral involuntariness" in the Supreme Court of Canada's judgment in R. v. Ruzic. He asserts that the voluntarist account of criminal liability is purely descriptive. Through the embrace of a mechanistic understanding of human agency, it forestalls judgment and veils the normative foundation of criminal law. The author asserts the need for a more normative approach, one which seeks to evaluate the moral blameworthiness of an act. In the case of duress, the author suggests that it is not enough to simply state that a person's will is constrained because …