Is Criminal Law 'Exceptional'?

Citation

Duff RA & Marshall SE (2021) Is Criminal Law 'Exceptional'?. Criminal Law and Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-021-09619-z

Abstract
If someone asserts, or denies, that ‘criminal law is exceptional’, our first question must be: what does this mean? As to ‘criminal law’, the claim must concern criminal law as an institutional practice, whose typical elements include a substantive criminal law that defines offences and defences; policing; the criminal process and criminal trial; and criminal punishment (not to mention the ‘collateral consequences’ that flow from a criminal conviction). But is the claim a descriptive claim about the criminal law as it actually operates, either in general or in this or that polity? Or is it a conceptual claim about the very idea of criminal law? Or is it a normative claim about criminal law as it ought to be, or as it can be rationally reconstructed?

Notes
Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Online

Journal
Criminal Law and Philosophy

People

Professor Antony Duff

Emeritus Professor, Philosophy

Professor Sandra Marshall

Emeritus Professor, Philosophy