Legal Theory Commons^™

Justification And Excuse, Law And Morality, Mitchell N. Berman

All Faculty Scholarship

Anglo-American theorists of the criminal law have concentrated on-one is tempted to say "obsessed over"-the distinction between justification and excuse for a good quarter-century and the scholarly attention has purchased unusually widespread agreement. Justification defenses are said to apply when the actor's conduct was not morally wrongful; excuse defenses lie when the actor did engage in wrongful conduct but is not morally blameworthy. A near consensus thus achieved, theorists have turned to subordinate matters, joining issue most notably on the question of whether justifications are "subjective"-turning upon the actor's reasons for acting-or "objective"-involving only facts independent of the actor's beliefs …

State Laws And The Independent Judiciary: An Analysis Of The Effects Of The Seventeenth Amendment On The Number Of Supreme Court Cases Holding State Laws Unconstitutional, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

In recent years, the Seventeenth Amendment has been the subject of legal scholarship, congressional hearings and debate, Supreme Court opinions, popular press articles and commentary, state legislative efforts aimed at repeal, and activist repeal movements. To date, the literature on the effects of the Seventeenth Amendment has focused almost exclusively on the effects on the political production of legislation and competition between legislative bodies. Very little attention has been given to the potential adverse effects of the Seventeenth Amendment on the relationship between state legislatures and the federal courts. This Article seeks to fill part of that literature gap, applying …

Don't Abandon The Model Penal Code Yet! Thinking Through Simons's Rethinking, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trends. Death Penalties For Purveyors Of Death? Not For Many Terrorists, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the nuances surrounding the use of the death penalty in terrorism cases.

Threats And Preemptive Practices, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

On The Obligation Of The State To Extend A Right Of Self-Defense To Its Citizens, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Evidentiary Theory Of Blackmail: Taking Motives Seriously, Mitchell N. Berman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Utility Of Desert, Paul H. Robinson, John M. Darley

All Faculty Scholarship

The article takes up the debate between utility and desert as distributive principles for criminal liability and punishment and concludes that a utilitarian analysis that takes account of all costs and benefits will support the distribution of liability and punishment according to desert, or at least according to the principles of desert as perceived by the community. It reaches this conclusion after an examination of a variety of recent social science data. On the one hand, it finds the traditional utilitarian theories of deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation to have little effect in many instances. It finds instead that the real …

Duress: A Philosophical Account Of The Defense In Law, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Justice, Liability, And Blame: Community Views And The Criminal Law, Paul H. Robinson, John M. Darley

All Faculty Scholarship

This book reports empirical studies on 18 different areas of substantive criminal law in which the study results showing ordinary people’s judgments of justice are compared to the governing legal doctrine to highlight points of agreement and disagreement. The book also identifies trends and patterns in agreement and disagreement and discusses the implications for the formulation of criminal law. The chapters include:

Chapter 1. Community Views and the Criminal Law (Introduction; An Overview; Why Community Views Should Matter; Research Methods)

Chapter 2. Doctrines of Criminalization: What Conduct Should Be Criminal? (Objective Requirements of Attempt (Study 1); Creating a Criminal Risk …

Are Criminal Codes Irrelevant?, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

After planning the effort for twenty years, the American Law Institute spent ten years debating and drafting a model criminal code. Twenty-eight drafters and forty-two advisors produced thirteen reports that were debated at eight annual meetings. Twenty years later, seven reporters with twenty-five advisors completed six volumes of official commentaries. This monumental drafting effort served as only the starting point for nearly two-thirds of the states that have recodified their criminal codes since the Model Penal Code was promulgated in 1962. In every instance a commission, legislative committee, or both, devoted additional time and energy redebating and revising the 1962 …

Foreword: The Criminal-Civil Distinction And Dangerous Blameless Offenders, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Codifying Criminal Law: Do Modern Codes Have It Right?, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rules Of Conduct And Principles Of Adjudication, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

In this article I will show why our legal system's rules of conduct are presently unclear, how the system arrived at its current state, and what can be done to make the rules of conduct clearer. My arguments and conclusions are, in brief, as follows: The criminal law fails to communicate clear rules of conduct because it fails to distinguish this communicative function from that of adjudicating violations of the rules, which requires primarily an assessment of the blameworthiness of the violator. These two functions - announcing public rules of conduct and assessing individual blame in adjudication of a violation …

Hybrid Principles For The Distribution Of Criminal Sanctions, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Most criminal codes, and most criminal law courses, begin with the 'familiar litany' of the purposes of criminal law sanctions - just punishment, deterrence, incapacitation of the dangerous, and rehabilitation. We train and direct our lawyers, judges, and legislators to use these purposes as guiding principles for the distribution of criminal sanctions. The purposes are thus to guide both the drafting and interpretation of criminal statutes and the imposition of criminal sentences in individual cases. The purposes frequently conflict, however, as part I will demonstrate. Conflicts arise because each purpose requires consideration of different criteria; in some cases, a particular …

From Lovercamp To A Prisoner's Right To Escape: An Inescapable Conclusion?, Rodney L. Schermer

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Retribution In A Modern Penal Law: The Principle Of Aggravated Harm, Ronald J. Allen

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sanctions And Deviance: Another Look, Herbert Kritzer

IUSTITIA

In the past several years, there has been an extended dialogue in the literature concerning the question of the efficacy of sanctions as a means of deterring criminal behavior. There is some convincing evidence that threatened sanctions can and do deter some forms of behavior, such as parking violations and income tax evasion. Do these findings extend to other forms of behavior which our society has defined as criminal? This issue is considered by Gibbs in an article which appeared to find a clear link between the certainty and severity of sanctions and the murder rate. Gibbs' article stimulated additional …

The Eighth Amendment, Beccaria, And The Enlightenment: An Historical Justification For The Weems V. United States Excessive Punishment Doctrine, Deborah A. Schwartz, Jay Wishingrad

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Punishment For Negligence: A Reply To Professor Hall, James B. Brady

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

California Narcotic Rehabilitation: De Facto Prison For Addicts, John L. Roche, James C. Rothwell

San Diego Law Review

This note discusses the history and status of California's statutory plans for coping with the narcotic addiction problem.

Felony-Murder - Surviving Co-Felons Are Punishable For First Degree Murder Under California Penal Code Section 189 For The Killing Of A Confederate By The Owner Of The Store Which They Were Robbing (People V. Hand, Cal. 1963), Robert C. Baxley

San Diego Law Review

In the process of executing a planned robbery of a store, one of four robbers was killed by the owner. The store had been previously robbed and the owner was waiting for such a recurrence. Held, on demurrer to the indictment, the surviving felons were punishable for first degree murder because the legislature intended this fact situation to be within the purview of section 189 and because of a strong public policy as a deterrent to violent felonies. People v. Hand, Crim. No. 5471, Super. Ct., San Diego (July 22, 1963).

Insanity As A Defense: The Bifurcated Trial, David W. Louisell, Geoffrey Hazard

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.