Justification and Excuse in the Criminal Law (Hamlyn Lecture) Book

Professor Smith considers a subject of great importance to the criminal law, both as a topic of extensive academic debate and also in the context of the problems faced by the ordinary citizen who may be confronted with a choice between breaking the letter of the law, or seeing others suffer harm. Issues discussed in this text include: the distinction between justification and excuse, and the consequences that may result from it; the "Stephen Waldorf" case in the context of potential resistance to mistakenly applied but lawful force; whether circumstances unknown to the defendant may amount to a defence; judicial interpretation as statutory "let-out" clauses, such as "without reasonable excuse", "dishonesty" and "recklessness"; necessity and duress; "mercy killings" and the judicial discovery of the defence of circumstances, and the future of justification and excuse in case law, legislation or codification.Read More