State Indemnity for Errors of Criminal Justice

Responsibility problems for criminal justice

It has been argued that empirical science undermines the claim that people can deserve punishment, and that the criminal justice system therefore ought to be radically reformed. Such arguments lose their force if moral responsibility and desert do not depend on what caused the action, but on the agent’s choice. We solve one problem for the justification of the criminal justice system, but creat...

State Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Ex-Offender Mobility

In Connectedness and Its Discontents, Dan Markel pays me the distinct honor of critiquing my recent article, Horizontal Federalism in an Age of Criminal Justice Interconnectedness. There, I examined the challenges faced by states as they seek to apply their registration and recidivist enhancement laws to exoffenders who, having discharged their penal commitments, migrate to other states. As I e...

Intuitions of Justice: Implications for Criminal Law and Justice Policy

Recent social science research suggests that many if not most judgments about criminal liability and punishment for serious wrongdoing are intuitional rather than reasoned. Further, such intuitions of justice are nuanced and widely shared, even though they concern matters that seem quite complex and subjective. While people may debate the source of these intuitions, it seems clear that, whateve...

Victorian Criminal Justice System

The criminal trial constitutes a drama performed by its leading actors (legal professionals) plus supporting actors (including spectators). How conscious and strategic are their performances? This article argues that conscious legal performativity is part of a sustained tradition of 'infotainment' with lasting implications for today's real-life courtroom dramas. The adoption of stereotypical co...

Dangerousness and Criminal Justice