Seeking Security: Pre-Empting the Commission of Criminal Harms

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Many academic criminal lawyers and criminal law theorists seek to resolve the optimum conditions for a criminal law fit to serve a liberal democracy. Typical wish lists include a criminal law that intervenes against any given individual only when there is a reasonable suspicion that s/he has caused harm to the legally protected interests of another or was on the brink of doing so. Until there is conduct that gives rise to a reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct by an individual, s/he should be allowed to go about his or her business free from covert surveillance or other forms of intrusion. All elements of crimes should be proved beyond any reasonable doubt. Any punishment should be proportionate to the gravity of the wrongdoing and when the offender has served this punishment the account should be cleared and good standing recovered. Seeking Security explores the gap between the normative aspirations of liberal, criminal law scholarship and the current criminal law and practice of Anglophone jurisdictions. The concern with security and risk, which in large part explains the disconnection between theory and practice, seems set to stay and is a major challenge to the form and relevance of a large part of criminal law scholarship.

Reviews

... a masterful collection of essays on a topic of tremendous, and increasing, importance. Seeking Security is a collection of essays greater than the sum of its parts (which all anthologies aspire to be, but so few actually are). It will reward careful reading by anyone interested in contemporary criminal law theory or moral, social and political philosophy, as well as providing rich fodder for anyone interested in understanding how even liberal democracies can lose their way in times of insecurity. I highly recommend it. -- Susan Dimock * Dialogue, November 2013 *

Author Bio

G R Sullivan is Emeritus Professor of Law at University College London. Ian Dennis is Professor of English Law at University College London.