Positive Obligations in Criminal Law

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Description

This book offers a set of essays, old and new, examining the positive obligations of individuals and the state in matters of criminal law. The centrepiece is a new, extended essay on the criminalisation of omissions-examining the duties to act imposed on individuals and organisations by the criminal law, and assessing their moral and social foundations. Alongside this is another new essay on the state's positive obligations to put in place criminal laws to protect certain individual rights. Introducing the volume is the author's much-cited essay on criminalisation, 'Is the Criminal Law a Lost Cause'. The book sets out to shed new light on contemporary arguments about the proper boundaries of the criminal law, not least by exploring the justifications for imposing positive duties (reinforced by the criminal law) on individuals and their relation to the positive obligations of the state.

Reviews

This is a timely and welcome collection of essays, both old and new, from the pen of someone who, I hesitate to remind him, has been, for not far short of half a century, one of the common law's most distinguished thinkers in the field of criminal law. -- William Wilson * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Online Book Reviews *
What comes cross throughout this book is how reasonable, principled and practical Ashworth is. It is...impossible to not be stimulated by this important book. -- Findlay Stark * The Cambridge Law Journal, Volume 73 *
Ashworth's excellent, detailed study of various critical doctrines merits reading -- Meredith Wallis * Law and Politics Book Review, Volume 24, Number 3 *
...excellent essays on some central topics in the criminal law [and] is likely to be an important point of reference for many years to come. ...the arguments are impeccably researched and referenced, with excellent use of cases and illustrations. Ashworth integrates doctrinal and policy issues, as well as criminalisation and punishment questions, with a mastery of each. -- A. P. Simester * Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, July 2014 *
[A] wonderful analysis of the thorny issue of omissions as the basis for criminal offending...Positive Obligations in Criminal Law offers readers quite valuable teachings on a host of subjects that are of everyday concern to the judiciary. -- Justice Gilles Renaud * Provincial Judges Journal, Winter 2015 *
A very important and well researched book which it is hoped will be read by all[.] Judges, Law Teachers and Students should use this a a reference. -- Rob Jerrard * Internet Law Books Review *
This is a noble book. It provides a wealth of evidence, analysis and practical issues from the aspect of English criminal law. -- Farahad Malekian * Criminal Law Forum *

Author Bio

Andrew Ashworth CBE KC FBA is Vinerian Professor Emeritus of English Law in the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College.