Justification Defenses and Just Convictions

This book extends the traditional scope of the legal and philosophical discussion of justification defences.

Robert F. Schopp (Author)

9780521058100, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 January 2008

228 pages
22 x 15.1 x 1.3 cm, 0.376 kg

Review of the hardback: '... it surpasses anything in the field in terms of rigor, comprehensiveness, and theoretical depth.' Lawrence Alexander, University of San Diego, School of Law

This major study advances an interpretation of criminal justification defences that views them as an integral component of the structure of the criminal law. Criminal law is defined here as the institutional representation of the underlying principles of political morality in a liberal society. The book extends the traditional scope of the legal and philosophical discussion of justification defences. It integrates philosophical analysis with a consideration of contemporary applications, it shows how these defences are key components of criminal law, and it explores the relationship between legal and moral justification.

1. Justification defenses: the issues
2. Justification defenses and the conventional public morality
3. Self-defense
4. Self-defense and battered women
5. Duress and systematically complete mitigation
6. The limits of justification: necessity and nullification
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Social & political philosophy [HPS]