Criminal Law and the Authority of the State

How does the state, as a public authority, relate to those under its jurisdiction through the criminal law? Connecting the ways in which criminal lawyers and public lawyers address questions of criminal law's legitimacy, contributors to this collection explore issues such as criminal law-making and jurisdiction; the use of criminal law to suppress challenges to state authority; the purposes and mechanisms of state punishment; the value of coherence in legal systems; the interface between tort and crime; and the importance of doctrinal guidance in the application of criminal law. Overall, the collection aims to enhance and deepen our understanding of criminal law by conceiving of the practices of criminal justice as explicitly and distinctly embedded in the project of liberal self-governance. (Series: Studies in Penal Theory and Penal Ethics, Vol. 6) [Subject: Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Legal Philosophy]