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Full-Text Articles in Law
Looting, Law, And Lawlessness, Stuart Green
Looting, Law, And Lawlessness, Stuart Green
ExpressO
As recent incidents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other natural and man-made disasters have illustrated, the moral content of looting spans an extraordinarily wide continuum: At one end are predatory and exploitative acts that seem deserving of even greater punishment than ordinary acts of burglary and larceny. At the other end are cases of necessity, involving otherwise law-abiding citizens who, as a result of forces beyond their control, find themselves hungry and exposed to the elements. In between these two poles lies a wide range of conduct that often involves impoverished and alienated citizens living on the edges …
An Attitudinal Theory Of Excuse In Criminal Law, Peter Westen
An Attitudinal Theory Of Excuse In Criminal Law, Peter Westen
ExpressO
The mother lode of criminal law scholarship is a unitary theory of excuses, that is, a normative account as to why a person who engages in conduct that a criminal statute prohibits ought nevertheless not be blamed for it. After defining "excuse" against commentators who argue that it cannot be coherently defined, and after criticizing competing theories of excuse, I argue that the feature that renders persons normatively blameless -- and, typically, legally blameless, too -- for engaging in conduct that a criminal statute prohibits is the possession of a certain attitude with which he engages in it. A person …