This volume collects 17 of Douglas Husak's influential essays in criminal law theory. The essays span Husak's original and provocative contributions to the major topics in the field, including the grounds of criminal liability, the significance of culpability, the role of defences, and the justification of punishment. The volume includes an extended introduction by the author, drawing together the themes of his work and exploring the goals of criminal theory. Together, the essays present a desert-based analysis of issues in criminal theory that rejects the consequentialist approach more familiar among legal scholars. The foremost concern of these essays is to ensure that the principles and doctrines of the criminal law preserve justice and do not sacrifice individuals for the common welfare. Engagingly written, the essays are accessible to non-specialists and represent an excellent introduction to current issues and debates in the theory of criminal law.
This book argues that ignorance of law should usually be a complete excuse from criminal liability. It defends this conclusion by invoking two presumptions: first, the content of criminal law should conform to morality; second, mistakes of fact and mistakes of law should be treated symmetrically. The author grounds his position in an underlying theory of moral and criminal responsibility according to which blameworthiness consists in a defective response to the moral reasons one has. Since persons cannot be faulted for failing to respond to reasons for criminal liability they do not believe they have, then ignorance should almost always excuse. But persons are somewhat responsible for their wrongs when their mistakes of law are reckless, that is, when they consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that their conduct might be wrong. This book illustrates this with examples and critiques the arguments to the contrary offered by criminal theorists and moral philosophers. It assesses the real-world implications for the U.S. system of criminal justice. The author describes connections between the problem of ignorance of law and other topics in moral and legal theory.
Recreational drug users (other than those who take harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco) are regularly imprisoned. Nearly half a million drug offenders are incarcerated in US jails, more than the total number of prisoners in 1980 and more than the entire EU prison population. In some states more is spent on maintaining the prison system than on education. Current drug policies lead to immense personal suffering, as well as police corruption, organized crime and contempt for the law, and make drugs more dangerous because they are illegal and thus not subject to proper controls. Politicians from all sides of the political spectrum are beginning to ask: is it worth it? In arguing that criminalization is unjust, Douglas Husak explodes many of the myths that surround drug use. In some years, more than half of high school seniors take drugs, yet the US is not overrun with drug-crazed addicts. Horror stories of the dangers of drug use abound, but the truth is more prosaic; although recreational drugs are sometimes bad for users, there are between 80 and 90 million US citizens who have used illicit drugs without ill effects.
America suffers from too much criminal law and too much punishment, which produces massive injustice. To rectify this injustice, we need to defend and implement a theory of criminalisation: a set of constraints that limit the authority of states to enact and enforce penal offenses.
America suffers from too much criminal law and too much punishment, which produces massive injustice. To rectify this injustice, we need to defend and implement a theory of criminalisation: a set of constraints that limit the authority of states to enact and enforce penal offenses.
This text provides an analysis of the theories and prinicples of contemporary Anglo-American substantive criminal law. It is the author's view that the interpretation and application of the general principles of criminal liability presupposes a moral and political philosophy. He argues that most of the leading criminal theorists have supposed that criminal theory can be empirical, scientific and objective, emphasizing such issues as action, harm and causation.
This book argues that ignorance of law should usually be a complete excuse from criminal liability. It defends this conclusion by invoking two presumptions: first, the content of criminal law should conform to morality; second, mistakes of fact and mistakes of law should be treated symmetrically. The author grounds his position in an underlying theory of moral and criminal responsibility according to which blameworthiness consists in a defective response to the moral reasons one has. Since persons cannot be faulted for failing to respond to reasons for criminal liability they do not believe they have, then ignorance should almost always excuse. But persons are somewhat responsible for their wrongs when their mistakes of law are reckless, that is, when they consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that their conduct might be wrong. This book illustrates this with examples and critiques the arguments to the contrary offered by criminal theorists and moral philosophers. It assesses the real-world implications for the U.S. system of criminal justice. The author describes connections between the problem of ignorance of law and other topics in moral and legal theory.
Recreational drug users (other than those who take harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco) are regularly imprisoned. Nearly half a million drug offenders are incarcerated in US jails, more than the total number of prisoners in 1980 and more than the entire EU prison population. In some states more is spent on maintaining the prison system than on education. Current drug policies lead to immense personal suffering, as well as police corruption, organized crime and contempt for the law, and make drugs more dangerous because they are illegal and thus not subject to proper controls. Politicians from all sides of the political spectrum are beginning to ask: is it worth it? In arguing that criminalization is unjust, Douglas Husak explodes many of the myths that surround drug use. In some years, more than half of high school seniors take drugs, yet the US is not overrun with drug-crazed addicts. Horror stories of the dangers of drug use abound, but the truth is more prosaic; although recreational drugs are sometimes bad for users, there are between 80 and 90 million US citizens who have used illicit drugs without ill effects.
Husak's primary goal is to defend a set of constraints to limit the authority of states to enact and enforce criminal offenses. In addition, Husak situates this endeavor in criminal theory as traditionally construed. This book urges the importance of this topic in the real world, while most Anglo-American legal philosophers have neglected it.
Covers tactics, leaders, and famous actions From Solidarity's passive/aggressive faceoff with communism to the courageous sit-ins and marches of the Civil Rights Movement, here is the first systematic survey of peaceful confrontations between the forces for the status quo and the forces for change. All the important events, tactics, and leaders are covered: Women's suffrage, blockades, IRA hunger strikes, monkey wrenching, Charter 77, the Clamshell Alliance, Rosa Parks, Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, Lech Walesa, and many more. Focuses on critical issues Clear, comprehensive, and authoritative, the Encyclopedia examines such critical contemporary issues as violence, the nature of power, conflict resolution, the mechanisms of social movements, the application of moral authority, and defines and surveys the underlying assumptions and prevailing thinking of all activists for change. A practical blueprint for peaceful protest-the first and only work of its kind For this first systematic treatment of the subject, expert contributors from around the world have written essays on key persons, events, ideas, works, institutions , groups, and methods. The result is a primer and practical guide on all aspects of nonviolent action. There is an introduction, a listing of the entries by category, and a comprehensive index. Special features: First and only encyclopedia on the subject * Spotlights the most important peaceful struggles of the 20th century * Examines l04 nonviolent movements, campaigns, and events * Profiles 70 activists and scholars, including a dozen Nobel Peace Prize laureates * Surveys 42 organizations that have led nonviolent movements * Details 40 methods of peaceful protest
This compact and innovative book tackles one of the central issues in drug policy: the lack of a coherent conceptual structure for thinking about drugs. Drugs generally fall into one of seven categories: prescription, over the counter, alternative medicine, common-use drugs like alcohol, tobacco and caffeine; religious-use, sports enhancement; and of course illegal street drugs like cocaine and marijuana. Our thinking and policies varies wildly from one to the other, with inconsistencies that derive more from cultural and social values than from medical or scientific facts. Penalties exist for steroid use, while herbal remedies or cold medication are legal. Native Americans may legally use peyote, but others may not. Penalties may vary for using different forms of the same drug, such as crack vs. powder cocaine. Herbal remedies are unregulated by the FDA; but medical marijuana is illegal in most states. Battin and her contributors lay a foundation for a wiser drug policy by promoting consistency and coherency in the discussion of drug issues and by encouraging a unique dialogue across disciplines. The contributors are an interdisciplinary group of scholars mostly based at the University of Utah, and include a pharmacologist, a psychiatrist, a toxicologist, a trial court judge, a law professor, an attorney, a diatary specialist, a physician, a health expert on substance abuse, and Battin herself who is a philosopher. They consider questions like the historical development of current policy and the rationales for it; scientific views on how drugs actually cause harm; how to define the key notions of harm and addiction; and ways in which drug policy can be made more consistent. They conclude with an examination of the implications of a consistent policy for various disciplines and society generally. The book is written accessibly with little need for expert knowledge, and will appeal to a diverse audience of philosophers, bioethicists, clinicians, policy makers, law enforcement, legal scholars and practitioners, social workers, and general readers, as well as to students in areas like pharmacy, medicine, law, nursing, sociology, social work, psychology, and bioethics.
Despite the U.S. government's sophisticated intelligence capabilities, policy makers repeatedly seemed to be caught off guard when major crises took place during the Cold War. Were these surprises the result of inadequate information, or rather the use made of the information available? In seeking an answer to this question, former CIA analyst Douglas MacEachin carefully examines the crisis in Poland during 1980-81 to determine what information the U.S. government had about Soviet preparations for military intervention and the Polish regime's plans for martial law, and what prevented that information from being effectively employed Drawing on his experience in intelligence reporting at the time, as well as on recently declassified U.S. documents and materials from Soviet, Polish, and other Eastern European archives, MacEachin contrasts what was known then with what is known now, and seeks to explain why, despite the evidence available to them, U.S. policy makers did not take the threat of a crackdown seriously enough to prevent it. It was the mind-set of those who processed the information, not the lack or accuracy of information, that was the fundamental problem, MacEachin argues. By highlighting this cognitive obstacle, his analysis points the way toward developing practices to overcome it in the future.
After the guns fell silent in May 1945, the USSR resumed its clandestine warfare against the western democracies. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin installed secret police services in all the satellite countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Trained by his NKVD – a predecessor of the KGB – officers of the Polish UB, the Czech StB, the Hungarian AVO, Romania’s Securitate, Bulgaria’s KDS, Albania’s Sigurimi and the Stasi of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) spied on and ruthlessly repressed their fellow citizens on the Soviet model. When the resultant hatred exploded in uprisings – in GDR 1953, Hungary 1956 and Czechoslovakia 1968 – they were put down by brutality, bloodshed and Soviet tanks. What was at first not so obvious was that these state terror organisations were also designed for military and commercial espionage in the West, to conceal the real case officers in Moscow. Specially trained operatives undertook mokrye dyela or ‘wet jobs’, including assassination of émigrés and other anti-Soviet figures. Perhaps the most menacing were the sleepers who settled in the West, married and had children while waiting to strike against their host countries. Many of them are still among us. Here, historian and author Douglas Boyd explores for the first time the relationship between the KGB and its ghastly brood of ‘daughters’ – a true family from hell.
What did it mean when Vladimir Putin stepped down from president to prime minister of Russia in 2008 and bounced to the top again in 2013? The Putin-Medvedev clique of mega-rich ex-KGB men and lawyers call their state machine kontora – the firm – and run it as though they own all the shares. They command the largest armed forces in Europe, equipped with half the world's nuclear warheads. Their air force regularly flies nuclear capable Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers into British airspace to analyse our radar defences and time in-the-air reaction. In a frightening foretaste of future warfare, the Kremlin launched a cyberattack on neighbouring Estonia in 2007 that crashed every computer and silenced every mobile phone, bringing the country to a complete halt. Was this just Tsar Vladimir bullying a small independent neighbour state that could not hit back – or a rehearsal for something far bigger? People call Putin's power strategy 'the new Cold War'. Author Douglas Boyd argues that it is the same one as before, fought with potent new weapons: the energy resources on which half of Europe now depends, and which can be turned off at Moscow's whim. Recounted often in the words of participants, The Kremlin Conspiracy is the chilling story of 1,000 years of bloodshed that made the Russians the way they are. Today, Ukraine. Tomorrow? The past points the way, for the men running the Kremlin 'firm' are driven by the same motivation as Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great.
Statistical downscaling and bias correction are becoming standard tools in climate impact studies. This book provides a comprehensive reference to widely-used approaches, and additionally covers the relevant user context and technical background, as well as a synthesis and guidelines for practitioners. It presents the main approaches including statistical downscaling, bias correction and weather generators, along with their underlying assumptions, skill and limitations. Relevant background information on user needs and observational and climate model uncertainties is complemented by concise introductions to the most important concepts in statistical and dynamical modelling. A substantial part is dedicated to the evaluation of regional climate projections and their value in different user contexts. Detailed guidelines for the application of downscaling and the use of downscaled information in practice complete the volume. Its modular approach makes the book accessible for developers and practitioners, graduate students and experienced researchers, as well as impact modellers and decision makers.
One of the foremost books in Sentencing Law, the new fourth edition continues in the tradition of its predecessors by giving students a comprehensive overview of modern sentencing practices. Authored by leading scholars, this casebook provides thorough examination of underlying doctrine, motivates students to tackle the important policy and political issues that animate sentencing practices, and poses challenging questions and hypotheticals to stimulate class discussion and independent thought. Key Features: More streamlined focus. Material covered in the third edition has been updated and streamlined reducing the length by more than 400 pages. Chapters 7-11 in the previous edition have been expanded and updated and are now available online. Thoroughly updated to address important statutory and case law changes, including important U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, state appellate court decisions and recent scholarship. Coverage of modern policy issues, including mass incarceration, prosecutorial and judicial discretion, punishment for drug crimes, revised federal and state sentencing guidelines, racial and other disparities in sentencing, and topics associated with administration of the death penalty. Expanded Teachers Manual with sample syllabi and other supporting materials to help professors construct personalized teaching plans that integrate the text and online materials.
An overview of the detection, pathogenesis and treatment of a wide spectrum of viral diseases that express their presence in the skin and its affiliated membranes.
The inaugural title in the Correlates of War series from CQ Press, this 2-volume set catalogs every official interstate alliance signed from the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 through the early twenty-first century, ranking it among the most thorough and accessible reviews of formal military treaties ever published. Maps and introductions showcase the effects of alliances on the region or international system in century-specific chapters, while individual narratives and summaries of alliances simultaneously provide basic information, such as dates and member states, as well as essential insights on the conditions that prompted the agreement. Additionally, separate and/or secret articles are highlighted for additional context and interest. Supplementary features of this two-volume set include: A timeline cataloging major events in political and military history Guides listing allegiances by region and by century An alphabetical treaty index Maps illustrating political boundaries across the centuries International Military Alliances is an indispensable resource for any library serving students of law, politics, history, and military science.
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