Criminal Responsibility by Victor Tadros
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2007.00668_1.x |
| Author | G R Sullivan |
nitty-gritty of bureaucratic practice into terms that make sense in the world of
academic inquiry.
Second, for those who do not have a particular interest in public law but are
interested in the making of legislation, in itself or as it a¡ects a particular area of
law, this book explains the background to the making of policy and legislation
better than any work has up to now. Most lawyers are concerned with how gov-
ernment approaches the issues of concern to them. From government’s point of
view, those areas are of little political importance; they are ‘routine’ rather than
‘high-pro¢le’, and falloutside the scope of many accounts of policy-making. This
book helpsus understand how policy in such areas is made; the lackof substantive
expertise of many of those involved, theirconcern with process, and the waythat
majorconsiderations to specialistsmay fail to bepicked up fullyby government.It
should therefore least help to improve u nderstanding of why those interactions
work as they do.
AlanTrench
n
Vict or Tadros, Criminal Responsibility,xv þ389 pp, hb d54.95, pb d24.99,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005
Criminal Responsibility is a notableaddition to the literature of what maybe termed
criminal law theory, a form of discoursewhich frequentlytakes the form of using
the insights of analytical and moral philosophy to critique the substantive crim-
inal law. Tadros has read very widely in Anglophone philosophy, par ticularly
moralphilosophy, and uses his reading togood e¡ect in addressing themajor pre-
occupation of the book, an examination of the conditions which mustbe present
if the imposition of criminal liability on individuals is to be just. Such an inquiry
is, of course, in£uenced by contingencies of time and place.The system of crim-
inal law under scrutiny is predominantly the current law of England andWales.
The work demonstrates that moralphilosophy matters for any informed critique
of the suppositions and doctrinesof the criminal law. A great virtueof the book is
that it can be readwith pro¢t by persons with no backgroundi n philosophy. The
style is clear and lively, although at times the reader may be distracted by the
author’s determined exposure of the philosophical errors of others at the expense
of the orderly development of his own line of thought.
Criminal Responsibility is divided into two parts.The ¢rst is mainly concerned
with an account in ge neral terms of the nature and structure of criminal respon-
sibility. The second examines the speci¢c doctrines of criminal responsibility to
be found in thelaw.The ¢rst part is the morei nteresting and original although the
second part may be considered the more successful.
At the heart of Tadros’ s scheme for the just attribution of criminal liability is the
concept of an agent fully responsible qua agent for the wrong that is constitutive of
the crime. In typicalformulations, the condition of agency is attained byan individual
n
The Constitution Unit, School of Public Policy, University College London.
Reviews
874 r2007The Authors. Journal Compilation r2007 The Modern Law ReviewLimited.
(2007) 70(5)MLR 872^886
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