Criminal Law

by Guyora Binder

Overview

Many controversies in American criminal law reflect the tension between older and newer conceptions of the purposes of punishment. The English common law of crimes enforced a royal peace by conditioning punishment on unauthorized force and harm to particular victims. The story of American criminal law has been the emergence of a more utilitarian conception of criminal offending as the imposition of risk or the violation of consent, combined with culpability. This conception is reflected in the Model Penal Code and many state codes. Yet understanding contemporary criminal law requires that we also remember the model of offending as trespass against sovereignty out of which it emerged. The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Criminal Law reviews the development of American criminal law and explains its key concepts and persistent controversies in light of its history. These key concepts include retribution and prevention as purposes of punishment; the requirements of a criminal act and a culpable mental state; criteria of causal responsibility; modes of violating consent; inchoate offenses, including attempt and conspiracy; doctrines of participation in crime; and defenses of justification and excuse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190621032
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/21/2016
Series:	Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	558 KB

About the Author

Guyora Binder is Distinguished Professor, Hodgson Russ Faculty Scholar, and Vice Dean for Research and Faculty Development at SUNY Buffalo Law School. He was previously a law clerk to federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein, Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Stanford, and a visiting professor at the law schools of the University of Michigan, Georgetown University, and Vanderbilt University. Professor Binder authored Treaty Conflict and Political Contradiction (1988), and Felony Murder (2012), and he was a co-author of Criminal Law (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016), and Literary Criticisms of Law (2000). His articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Texas Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, University of Toronto Law Review, and the Yale Journal of Law and Humanities.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments About the Editor About the Author Chapter 1 What is Criminal Law? I. Introduction II. Prohibition III. Punishment IV. State Punishment V. Why Criminal Law Matters VI. Conclusion Chapter 2 The American Criminal Justice System I. Introduction II. The English Origins of Criminal Law III. The Transformation of English Criminal Law During the Colonial Period IV. Colonial American Criminal Justice V. Criminal Justice in the New Republic VI. Crime as a National Political Issue VII. The Processing of Criminal Cases Today VIII. Conclusion Chapter 3 Why Punish? I. Why We Need Theories of Punishment II. Corrective and Preventive Theories III. Preventive Purposes IV. Retribution V. Proportional Punishment and Sentencing Process VI. Conclusion Chapter 4 The Criminal Act I. Offenses II. Legality III. Wrongful Acts IV. Omissions V. A Constitutional Requirement of Conduct VI. A Constitutional Requirement of Voluntariness? VII. Possession VIII. Conclusion Chapter 5 The Criminal Mind I. Introduction II. The Idea of Mens Rea in Ancient and Medieval Law III. Transferred and Presumed Intent in Early Modern English Law IV. The Idea of a Mental Element in 19th Century England and America V. Public Welfare Offenses and the Question of Strict Liability VI. Strict Liability, Statutory Interpretation, and Due Process in the Supreme Court VII. The Model Pebal Code's Culpability Scheme VIII. The Model Penal Code's Default Rules IX. Mistake of Law X. Incapacity for Culpability XI. Conclusion Chapter 6 Homicide, From Killing to Causing I. Introduction II. Origins of English Homicide Law III. English Homicide Law in the Age of Blackstone IV. American Codification of Homicide V. The Utilitarian Critique of Homicide Law VI. The Emergence of Causation as an Element of Homicide VII. Factual Causation VIII. Legal Causation IX. The Model Penal Code's Causation Test X. The Model Penal Code's Homicide Scheme XI. American Homicide Statutes After the Code XII. Death Penalty Law After the Code XIII. Conclusion: The Persistence of Normative Judgment Chapter 7 Rape and Theft, From Force to Non-consent I. Two Offenses Against Consent II. Reflections on Consent III. The "Metamorphosis" of Theft IV. Frauds V. Extortion VI. Robbery and Burglary VII. The Emergence of Rape Liability VIII. The Requirement of Resistance IX. Reform Standards: Force or Nonconsent? X. The Mental Element of Rape XI. Rape by Incapacity, Extortion and Fraud XII. Conclusion Chapter 8 Anticipatory and Participatory Liability I. Introduction II. Punishment of Attempt III. Mental Element of Attempt IV. The Act of Attempting V. Impossible and Abandoned Attempts VI. Solicitation VII. Punishing Conspiracy VIII. Conspiracy: Act and Intent IX. Complicity X. Accomplice Conduct XI. Accomplice Culpability XII. Innocent Agents, Relatively Innocent Agents, and Discrepant Liability XIII. Co-Conspirator and Accomplice Liability for Secondary Crimes XIV. Vicarious and Corporate Liability XV. Conclusion Chapter 9 Justification and Excuse I. Introduction II. Distinguishing and Comparing Justification and Excuse III. Law Enforcement (and other exercises of public authority) IV. Defensive Force V. Necessity VI. Duress VII. Insanity Conclusion Index

Editorial Reviews

"This elegant work will revive interest in substantive criminal law. Binder covers all of the relevant issues and highlights the classic controversies of criminal law for a new generation. This impressive effort should be welcomed by students, lawyers, judges, and the general public."
—George Fletcher, Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence, Columbia University Law School

"From his many decades as an active scholar and an effective teacher Guyora Binder has given us a concise tour of the highlights of American criminal law. His conversational tone is ideal for introducing students to the subject and showing just how enormously interesting the subject can be."
—Paul H. Robinson, Colin S. Diver Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School

From the Publisher