Professor Mike Redmayne, F6.13

The course is compulsory for Intermediate LLB students and BA Anthropology and Law 2nd year students. It is also available to General Course students and as an outside option.

The course examines the 'general part' of criminal law and selected areas of the special part of criminal law in the context of theories of the aims and functions of criminalisation.

• justifying criminal law: what are the limits to criminalization?;

• the conceptual framework of criminal liability (conduct, responsibility, capacity, defences);

• criminal law's construction and regulation of interests in property (with particular reference to the offences of theft and fraud);

• attempts;

• regulatory offences (with special reference to drugs);

• homicide;
  sexual offences;

• non-fatal violence against the person;

• secondary participation in crime

Teaching is by 40 hours of lectures (LL108) and 22 classes. Detailed reading lists are provided and students are expected to be fully prepared beforehand in order to be able to participate in class.

This will be set by the teacher in charge of the class. A minimum of two pieces of written work will be required, usually one essay and one problem.

A detailed reading list will be distributed at the start of the course (for the current list, see the public folders). A number of criminal law textbooks are available, and students will be expected to read the relevant parts of the most recent editions of one of these, eg Nicola Lacey, Oliver Quick & Celia Wells, Reconstructing Criminal Law;  Andrew Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law; M Allen, Introduction to Criminal Law. They will also be expected to read all cases and materials marked as primary on the detailed reading lists provided.

Three-hour written examination in the ST.