The law relating to general defences is one of the most important areas in the criminal law, yet the current state of the law in the United Kingdom reveals significant problems in the adoption of a consistent approach to their doctrinal and theoretical underpinnings, as exemplified by a number of recent developments in legislation and case law. A coherent and joined-up approach is still missing. This volume provides an analysis of the main contentious areas in British law, and proposes ways forward for reform. The collection includes contributions from leading experts across various jurisdictions. Part I examines the law in the United Kingdom, with specialist contributions on Irish and Scottish law. Part II consists of contributions by authors from a number of foreign jurisdictions, all written to a common research grid for maximum comparability, which provide a wider background of how other legal systems treat problems relating to general defences in the context of the criminal law, and which may serve as points of reference for domestic law reform.

Handbook for law students and criminal law practitioners. Third edition updating the analysis of the defences available under the law up to 1995, including a much more extensive analysis of provisions of the various criminal codes than previous editions. Also outlines the defences available to commonwealth crimes as well as states with both common law and statutory criminal systems. Includes a table of contents, table of cases, table of statutes and an index. O'Connor is a barrister at law and formerly reader in law at the ANU and Fairall is professor of law at James Cook University and adjunct professor at Bond University. Also available in paperback.

"[This book analyzes] the defences to criminal prosecutions both at common law and under statute in all jurisdictions of Australia. The various defences are described...together with the circumstances under which they can be raised and how several defences can be combined. The inter-relationship of the defences is also fully explored, with an eye to jurisdictional differences. It also includes additional analysis of Infanticide and Infancy as well as touching upon the Commonwealth Criminal Code."--

This major study advances an interpretation of criminal justification defences that views them as an integral component of the structure of the criminal law. A definition of criminal law is included in this book.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK “Despite the existing scholarly literature on criminal defences, many issues remain contested or unresolved. Dr Dsouza offers a thorough and scholarly treatment of a complex topic which can be expected to become a point of reference for future work in the field.” Professor James Chalmers, University of Glasgow “Mark Dsouza has produced an engaging, incisive and cogently argued monograph, that makes an original contribution to criminal law theory. Required reading for scholars and graduate students working on criminal law defences.” Professor Paul Roberts, University of Nottingham Although it is often accepted that rationale-based defences to criminal liability can be justificatory or excusatory, disagreements about how best to conceptualise the categories of justification and excuse have appeared so interminable that some theorists argue that they should be abandoned altogether. This book offers a novel, principled, and intuitively appealing conceptual account of the natures of justifications and excuses, showing how they differ, and why the distinction between them matters. The monograph breaks new ground by defending a model of rationale-based defences that turns solely on the quality of the defendant's reasoning. This model is shown to generate appealing liability outcomes, advance convincing solutions to questions that have puzzled criminal lawyers for years, and offer suggestions for doctrinal reform that are both normatively sound, and practical. By proposing new ways to think about defences, this book makes an original contribution to criminal law theory that will be of benefit to academics, practitioners, and persons interested in law reform.

A selection of some of the author's best-known and most provocative writings on criminal law. Although it discusses the legitimacy of criminal punishment, it proceeds on the footing that the criminal law does many important things apart from punishing people.