Product Description
Table of Contents
Additional Information
The idea of a cultural defense in criminal law is often ridiculed as "multiculturalism run amok ". To allow someone charged with a crime to say "this is my culture " as an excuse for their action seems to open the door to cultural relativism, to jeopardize the protection of fundamental rights, and to undermine norms of individual responsibility. Many scholars, however, insist that cultural evidence is appropriate, indeed essential, for the fair operation of the criminal law. The criminal law is society's most powerful tool for regulating behaviour, and just for that reason we apply strong safeguards to ensure that criminal sanctions are applied in a fair way. When it comes to individuals, we want our rules for judging responsibility and punishment to track the actual blameworthiness of the specific individual being prosecuted for a specific action in the past. Cultural evidence may help improve our judgements of individual blameworthiness and desert; indeed, cultural evidence might even be necessary if the practice of punishing individuals is to be legitimate and equitable. According to its proponents, the use of cultural evidence when judging individual blameworthiness is a natural extension of the logic of existing criminal law doctrines regarding defences, and of the logic of current philosophical theories of responsibility and agency. This volume brings together scholars of both criminal law and philosophy to rigorously assess these ideas. Each of the chapters addresses a different dimension of the issue, from a range of perspectives, with varying degrees of sympathy or scepticism regarding cultural defences. The result is an important and original contribution to the literature. It explores why cultural diversity raises distinctive challenges in the criminal law context, not found in other domains of the multiculturalism debate, while also exploring how this particular context raises fundamental issues of agency and responsibility that are at the heart of broader debates in legal, social and political philosophy.
1. Introduction ; 2. Criminal Law and Culture ; 3. Culture and Criminalization ; 4. Between Denial and Recognition: Criminal Law and Cultural Diversity ; 5. Responsibility, Morality, and Culture ; 6. Cultural Defense and the Criminal Law ; 7. Family Matters: Is there Room for 'Culture' in the Courtroom? ; 8. The Cultural Defense: Reflections in Light of the Model Penal Code and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ; 9. What Do We Have to Fear from the Cultural Defense?
Author(s) | Edited by Will Kymlicka (Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, Queen's University), Claes Lernestedt (Professor of Criminal Law, Professor of Criminal Law, Uppsala University), Matt Matravers (Director of the School of PEP and Director, Director of the School of PEP and Director, Morrell Centre for Toleration, University of York). |
---|---|
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
ISBN | 9780199676590 |
Format | Hardback |
Pages | 224 |
Published in | United Kingdom |
Published | 29 May 2014 |
Availability | Available |
Practice Area
-
Company, commercial & competition
- Agency law
- Aviation law
- Commercial law
- Company law
- Company, commercial & competition law
- Competition law \ Antitrust law
- Construction & engineering law
- Contract law
- E-commerce law
- Energy & natural resources law
- Franchising law
- Outsourcing law
- Partnership law
- Procurement law
- Sale of goods law
- Shipping law
-
Constitutional & administrative
- Asylum law
- Citizenship & nationality law
- Constitutional & administrative law
- Election law
- Freedom of expression law
- Freedom of information law
- Government powers
- Human rights & civil liberties law
- Immigration law
- Judicial review
- Local government law
- Military & defence law
- Parliamentary & legislative practice
- Privacy law
-
Criminal law & procedure
- Criminal justice law
- Criminal law & procedures
- Criminal procedure
- Criminal procedure: law of evidence
- Fraud
- Harassment law
- Juvenile criminal law
- Offences against property
- Offences against public health, safety, order
- Offences against the government
- Offences against the person
- Police law & police procedures
- Road traffic law, motoring offences
- Sentencing & punishment
- Terrorism law
- Employment & labour
- Environment, transport & planning
- Equity & trusts
- Family
- Financial
- IT & Communications
- Intellectual property
-
International
- Customary law
- Diplomatic law
- International
- International arbitration
- International communications & telecommunications law
- International courts & procedures
- International criminal law
- International economic & trade law
- International environmental law
- International human rights law
- International humanitarian law
- International law
- International law of territory & statehood
- International law of transport, communications & commerce
- International law reports
- International maritime law
- International organisations & institutions
- International space & aerospace law
- Investment treaties & disputes
- Jurisdiction & immunities
- Law of the sea
- Private international law & conflict of laws
- Public international law
- Responsibility of states & other entities
- Settlement of international disputes
- Tariffs
- Transnational commercial law
- Treaties & other sources of international law
-
Jurisprudence & general
- Advocacy
- Civil codes \ Civil law
- Common law
- Comparative law
- Criminology: legal aspects
- Ecclesiastical (canon) law
- Gender & the law
- Islamic law
- Jurisprudence & general issues
- Jurisprudence & philosophy of law
- Law & society
- Law as it applies to other professions
- Legal ethics & professional conduct
- Legal history
- Legal profession: general
- Legal skills & practice
- Paralegals & paralegalism
- Roman law
- Systems of law
- Law - other
- Law: study & revision guides
- Laws of Specific jurisdictions
-
Legal system
- Arbitration, mediation & alternative dispute resolution
- Civil procedure, litigation & dispute resolution
- Civil procedure: law of evidence
- Civil remedies
- Courts & procedure
- Damages & compensation
- Injunctions & other orders
- Judicial powers
- Legal system: costs & funding
- Legal system: general
- Legal system: law of contempt
- Regulation of legal profession
- Restitution
- Primary sources
- Private \ Civil law: general works
- Property
- Social
- Taxation & duties
- Torts & Delicts
- Wills & probate \ Succession
My Cart
You have no items in your shopping cart.