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Chiao on Moore on Criminal Responsibility

By Lawrence Solum

pVincent Chiao (Harvard Law School) has posted a href=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1316376Action and Agency in the Criminal Law/a on SSRN.nbsp; Here is the abstract:/pblockquotepThis paper offers a critical reconsideration of the traditional doctrine that criminal responsibility requires a voluntary act. I defend three general propositions: first, that orthodox Anglo-American criminal theory (as represented by Michael Moore's updating of Austin's volitionalism) fails to adequately explain why criminal responsibility requires an act. Second, when it comes to the just definition of crimes, the act requirement is at best a very rough generalization, rather than a substantive limiting principle. Third, that what is sound in the intuition underlying the so-called quot;act requirementquot; is better explained by what I call the quot;practical agency condition,quot; according to which punishment in a specific instance is unjust unless the crime charged was caused or constituted by the agent's conduct (broadly understood) qua practically rational agent. The practical agency condition is defended as a reconstruction of what is worth retaining in Anglo-American criminal law's traditional notion of an quot;act requirement.quot; /p/blockquote

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).