This article describes (1) the relationship between the demands made by feminist movements of the 1970s in cases of sexual violence and criticism of the criminal justice system by these movements and other groups, including the prisoners’ movement; and (2) the relationship between this debate and the legal process of reforming the definition and punishment of rape. Two periods are analyzed. In ...

Some of the implications for law of recent discoveries in neuroscience are considered in a new program established by the MacArthur Foundation. A group of neuroscientists, lawyers, philosophers, and jurists are examining issues in criminal law and, in particular, problems in responsibility and prediction and problems in legal decision making.

Behavioural analysis of criminal law exploits social science methodologies (behavioural economics, psychology and even sociology) to explore the effects of criminal law norms on criminals, judges, juries and other decision-makers, to determine the optimal type and size of criminal sanctions, to identify the optimal design of the enforcement system and the rules of evidence. Behavioural analysis...

Should criminal law principles be applied to life insurance claims made by the beneficiaries of an insured person who commits suicide? Any discussion of the criminal law and the M'Naghten test of criminal responsibility, as sometimes used by the courts and recommended by the authors, obfuscates the resolution of contemporary issues.

General principles of law are a primary mechanism for “gap-filling” in international criminal law. However, their interpretation by tribunals has been fitful, contradictory, and misguided. Given that general principles have been used to settle crucial legal issues that affect the rights of the accused, the confusion concerning their application threatens the legitimacy of international criminal...

Little attention has been paid to the importance of the relationship between therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) and the role of criminal defense lawyers in insanity and incompetency-to-stand-trial (IST) cases. That inattention is especially noteworthy in light of the dismal track record of counsel providing services to defendants who are part of this cohort of incompetency-status-raisers and insani...

An obvious, if somewhat perverse, attraction of criminal law for those who study it is that it involves the regulation of some of the darkest and most disturbing aspects of human behavior. If one is interested in observing the most wrongful, harmful, and anti-social kinds of conduct in which people are capable of engaging, the criminal law offers as promising a place as any to start. Moral phil...