Research Groups:The Legitimization of Modern Criminal Law

[RG # 146] The Legitimization of Modern Criminal Law

March 1 - July 31, 2016

Organizer:
Alon Harel (The Hebrew University)

It is often said that criminal law faces a crisis of legitimacy: a crisis of perceived legitimacy, in that many of those who are subject to it do not regard it as author- itative; a crisis of normative legitimacy, insofar as it cannot plausibly claim the authority that it needs.

This Research Group will pursue five lines of research aimed at understanding and finding ways of responding to it. First, we take seriously the fact that criminal law is a political institution, whose legitimation must be grounded in political theory. Second, we will explore the ways in which criminal law can be differentiated from other legal and extra-legal mechanisms for regulating behavior. Third, we will examine the scope of activities that can legitimately be criminalized, since a failure to honor appropriate limitations on that scope is another source of the crisis of legitimacy. Fourth, we will examine the procedural features that are necessary for strengthening the legitimacy of criminal law. Finally, we will attend to criminal punishment, in particular the question of what modes of criminal punishment can play a legitimate role in a democratic polity.

2015-2016 Research Groups The Legitimization of Modern 2015-2016 Law

Members

Kathryn Campbell

FELLOW

University of Ottawa

Kathryn Campbell is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Vincent Chiao

FELLOW

University of Toronto

Vincent Chiao is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. His research interests are primarily in the area of criminal law and criminal justice, with a particular interest in the philosophical examination of its doctrine and institutions.

Leora Dahan-Katz

FELLOW

Yale Law School

Leora Dahan-Katz is a fellow at the Yale Center for Law and Philosophy at Yale Law School, and runs the Law and Philosophy Speaker Series. Her prior work explored the moral and legal implications of recent developments in the field of cognotive psychology.

R. A. Duff

FELLOW

University of Sterling

R. A. Duff is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Sterling, where he taught philosophy for almost 40 years, and a Professor in the University of Minnesota Law School, where he helped to create the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice.

Talia Fisher

Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University

Miri Gur-Arye

FELLOW

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Miri Gur-Arye is a Judge Basil Wunsh Professor of Criminal Law in the Faculty of Law at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Alon Harel

FELLOW

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Alon Harel is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a member of the Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality.