Assignment for Wed 3/29: pp. 418-429
Assignment for Fri 3/31: pp. 429-441

Culver’s introduction to these selections (pp. 398-401) is a little longer than usual and is worth reading before you read Duff since he will provide some of the context for Duff’s discussion (which consists of a number of extracts from a book). Culver’s introduction explains the Latin legal terms that show up in Duff, but also remember his glossary. (Incidentally, the term here spelled “poenitentiae” is often, if not more often, spelled “paenitentiae.”)

Duff begins with a distinction between “subjectivist” and “objectivist” accounts of criminal liability but considers only the former in the selection included in Culver (see Culver’s introduction for a some hints about what “objectivism” might be). Duff distinguishes two varieties of subjectivism, which focus, respectively, on choice and on character. Your first assignment consists of his discussion of the first and also some motivation for considering the second. The second assignment focuses on the second sort of subjectivism though it also has some concluing comments connecting the two.

In the case of each view, get a sense of the motivation for the view, of the aspects of criminal liability that it explains well, and of the aspects that it has difficulty handling. Finally, ask yourself whether, all told, you think it is the right approach. It’s worth noting that these are not merely abstract issues of justification since the way the law is justified can influence the course it takes, and British law, for example, became significantly more subjectivist in recent decades (see Culver’s introduction to the case Regin v. Shivpuri, pp. 401ff, for an account of one part of that change). Duff’s book is an example of philosophical reflection on the issues raised by the change.