A P Simester

'... undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course.' John Taggart, Criminal Law Review This outstanding account of modern English criminal law combines detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law, covering all subjects taught at undergraduate level. The book's philosophical approach ensures students have a deeper understanding of the law that goes beyond a purely doctrinal knowledge. As a result, over its numerous editions, it has become required reading for criminal law courses. The 9th edition covers all statutory law including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Online Safely Act 2023, and the Public Order Act 2023. Case law discussions now cover R v Iqbal (2023) and Auriol Grey (2024).

'... undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course.' John Taggart, Criminal Law Review This outstanding account of modern English criminal law combines detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law, covering all subjects taught at undergraduate level. The book's philosophical approach ensures students have a deeper understanding of the law that goes beyond a purely doctrinal knowledge. As a result, over its numerous editions, it has become required reading for criminal law courses. The 9th edition covers all statutory law including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Online Safely Act 2023, and the Public Order Act 2023. Case law discussions now cover R v Iqbal (2023) and Auriol Grey (2024).

This book shows how the mainstream doctrines of substantive criminal law map onto certain key underlying (and overlapping) principles. These principles are: legitimate criminalisation, accountability, culpability, moral responsibility and wrongdoing.

'... undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course.’John Taggart, Criminal Law ReviewThis outstanding account of modern English criminal law combines detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law, covering all subjects taught at undergraduate level. The book’s philosophical approach ensures students have a deeper understanding of the law that goes beyond a purely doctrinal knowledge As a result, over its numerous editions, it has become required reading for many criminal law courses. The 8th edition covers all statutory law including the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act 2018 and Domestic Abuse Act, s 71. Case law discussions now cover: Grant (complicity); Barton (dishonesty); Broughton, Field, Kuddus, and Rebelo (homicide) and AG’s Ref (No 1 of 2020) (sexual offences).

Written by a noted expert in criminal law, the book explores the philosophical underpinnings of the law's major doctrines concerning actus reus, mens rea, and defences, showing that they are not always driven by culpability. They are grounded also in principles of moral responsibility, ascriptive responsibility, and wrongdoing. As such, they engage wider debates about wrongdoing, and about the boundaries between liability and freedom. This multi-textured analysis allows the book to take more nuanced positions about many important controversies in criminal law. It argues, for example, that liability for omissions and for negligence-and even some strict liability elements-can sometimes be legitimate yet, at the same time, should be relatively rare. It also explains why principles of causation can differ in the criminal law from other contexts; what is wrong with the 'voluntary act' requirement; and why luck can affect the wrongs we commit without changing our degree of blameworthiness for committing them. The book concludes with an account of the major types of defences, and of how they interact with an agent's wrong and her underlying motivations. This volume presents a coherent and rich vision of the criminal law that, by its sheer breadth, makes a distinctive contribution to the literature, of interest to lawyers and philosophers alike.

This is the new edition of the leading textbook on criminal law by Professors Simester and Sullivan, now co-written with Professors Spencer, Stark, and Virgo. Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law is an outstanding account of modern English criminal law, combining detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law and it has become the set text in many leading universities. Additionally, the book is used as an important point of reference in academic writing and postgraduate research in England and abroad. Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law has been cited by appellate courts throughout the world. The sixth edition is comprehensively updated throughout to set out and analyse all key development in the field with the work’s trademark clarity and critical rigour. Review of the Fifth Edition `undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course. Since attaining international recognition and citation in appellate courts worldwide, the security of the text's position as a point of academic reference remains as steadfast as ever.’ John Taggart BL, Criminal Law Review.

When should we make use of the criminal law? Crimes, Harms, and Wrongs offers a philosophical analysis of the nature and ethical limits of criminalisation. The authors explore the scope of harm-based prohibitions, proscriptions of offensive behaviour, and ‘paternalistic’ prohibitions aimed at preventing self-harm, developing guiding principles for these various grounds of state prohibition. Both authors have written extensively in the field. They have produced an integrated, accessible, philosophically-sophisticated account that will be of great interest to legal academics, philosophers, and advanced students alike.

When should we make use of the criminal law? Crimes, Harms, and Wrongs offers a philosophical analysis of the nature and ethical limits of criminalisation. The authors explore the scope of harm-based prohibitions, proscriptions of offensive behaviour, and ‘paternalistic’ prohibitions aimed at preventing self-harm, developing guiding principles for these various grounds of state prohibition. Both authors have written extensively in the field. They have produced an integrated, accessible, philosophically-sophisticated account that will be of great interest to legal academics, philosophers, and advanced students alike. ‘this elegant, closely argued and convincing book is of great value and can be expected to be of lasting influence.’ James Chalmers ‘Crimes, Harms, and Wrongs . . . is a welcome addition to this field, and should clarify the reader’s thinking on a breathtakingly broad range of issues. . . . This is an important book, and [its] consideration of not only Anglo-American theory and law, but also German legal doctrines and writings on criminalisation, should ensure that this debate reaches new heights in the future.’ Findlay Stark ‘the result of [the authors’] many decades of thought and writing on this fundamental subject is an integrated, accessible, philosophically sophisticated discussion of this subject.’ Justice Gilles Renaud ‘A. P. Simester and Andreas von Hirsch present an informed and systematic account of the principles that, in their view, should structure decisions about what to criminalize, and when.’ Vincent Chiao ‘an outstanding work, original in many respects and meticulous in its arguments. It represents the greatest advance on this subject since Feinberg’s four volumes . . . an outstanding contribution to the re-invigorated criminalization debate.’ Andrew Ashworth ‘important, original, interesting, and often ingenious. Unlike some recent competitive books it has the virtue of making sound arguments. And like everything else the authors have written, it is a joy to read …This is an absolutely wonderful book.’ Douglas Husak