Description
Book SynopsisHusak''s primary goal is to defend a set of constraints to limit the authority of states to enact and enforce criminal offenses. In addition, Husak situates this endeavor in criminal theory as traditionally construed. This book urges the importance of this topic in the real world, while most Anglo-American legal philosophers have neglected it.
Trade ReviewThis is a rich and thought-provoking account of a much undertheorized and yet hugely important issue. It is true that the model Husak offers is far from comprehensive, with the task of adding substantive content to its skeleton being candidly deferred or delegated at key points. As Husak rightly emphasizes, however, these moments of uncertainty, ambiguity, or imprecision should not be seen as shortcomings, but should be recognizes as challenges for future scholarship...Husak's book signals a bold attempt to 'shake up' the discipline and to reignite our interest in the core issues of justice, wrong, blame, desert, and to proportionality with which we should be concerned. * Vanessa E. Munro, New Criminal Law Review, Volume 12 No.2, Spring 2009 *
'"Trying to stem the tide of fatuous law that emanates from our incontinent legislatures, at least in the US and the UK, is a luckless and thankless task. I admire Husak enormously for his willingness to take the task on, and for the lively, sensible, and good-natured tone that he brings to it. I also admire his anti-authoritarian and anti-managerial moral instincts, sadly at odds with the spirit of the age. But most of all I admire Husak as a professional philosopher of law. His work is clear, thorough, patient, ingenious, insightful, informed, imaginative, and highly distinctive. Overcriminalization is no exception. Even those who are pessimistic about the possibility of deliberately effecting political change through academic work have a huge amount to learn from this wise, timely, and well-written book." - John Gardner, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
''...critically important and easily readable...Highly recommended.'"-Choice
"This book is an outstanding contribution to discussion about the moral limits of the criminal law... Husak's development and defense of his normative theory is modest, nuanced, and sophisticated. Even where his criticisms of other writers fail to convince, they are subtle and eminently fair. The footnotes alone contain a wealth of information and arguments from which readers will learn much."
-Ethics
Table of ContentsPREFACE ; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ; CHAPTER ONE: THE AMOUNT OF CRIMINAL LAW ; IV: AN ILLUSTRATION OF OVERCRIMINALIZATON ; CHAPTER TWO: INTERNAL CONSTRAINTS ON CRIMINALIZATION ; CHAPTER THREE: EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS ON CRIMINALIZATION ; CHAPTER FOUR: ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF CRIMINALIZATION
