Excusing information-provision crimes in the bureaucratic state

A way of conceiving the state in which we live is as the ‘bureaucratic–participatory’ state. The good citizen in this state is the citizen who is honest and truthful, when required to provide information needed by officials charged with furthering the public interest in regulatory contexts. Offences applicable to those who fail to provide the right information to officials form a large proportion of crimes on the statute book. The most disadvantaged members of society are the least well-equipped to meet the information demands of the bureaucratic state, and are the most vulnerable to unjust conviction under such laws. Comparing and contrasting the approach to defences of different forms or ideologies of law, I argue the case for a broad excusing provision to information-provision offences, when those offences target groups especially likely to include disadvantaged members of society. To that end, I focus on information-provision crimes relating to benefit claims

Criminal law and republican liberty: Philip Pettit's account

Philip Pettit has made central to modern republican theory a distinctive account of freedom – republican freedom. On this account, I am not free solely because I can make choices without interference. I am truly free, only if that non-interference does not itself depend on another’s forbearance (what Pettit calls ‘formal’ freedom). To be worth having, my freedoms must not be at the mercy of some other person, making me subject to their domination. Pettit believes that the principal justification for the traditional focus of the criminal law is that it constitutes a bulwark against domination. I will be considering the merits of this claim. Is the importance of the orthodox realm of the criminal law solely or mainly explained by the wish to protect people from domination? In short, the answer is that it is not, even though there are some instances in which it provides such protection. Across the board, the criminal law rightly protects us equally from threats to what Pettit calls ‘effective’, as opposed to formal, republican freedom

Criminal law at the limit: countering false claims in elections and referendums

When should the criminal law intervene to deter and punish the promulgation of falsehoods that are intended to influence political – electoral or referendum - campaigns? I will scrutinise the protection that UK criminal law provides for the interests of candidates, referendum campaigners and voters, from the (potential) effects of damaging falsehoods. I suggest that neither the protection of candidates’ or campaigners’ reputations, nor the promotion of the public good of collective decision-making by voters based on accurate and adequate information, in themselves provide sufficient reasons for criminal law intervention. Falsehoods must normally be intended to threaten, undermine or prevent effective participation in the political process before the intervention of the criminal law is justified

Ministers’ business appointments and criminal misconduct

The offence of misconduct in office has an important role to play in the deterrence and punishment of corrupt conduct engaged in by officials. However, the offence has been underused against politicians. There should be a more politically engaged approach by the CPS and the courts to change this. There should be a greater willingness to charge Ministers whose ethical behaviour in taking up lucrative opportunities upon leaving office is a gross breach of the public’s trust, even if that involves some extension of the scope of the misconduct offence

Criminal law and republican liberty: Philip Pettit’s account

Philip Pettit has made central to modern republican theory a distinctive account of freedom—republican freedom. On this account, I am not free solely because I can make choices without interference. I am truly free, only if that non-interference does not itself depend on another’s forbearance (what Pettit calls ‘formal’ freedom). Pettit believes that the principal justification for the traditional focus of the criminal law is that it constitutes a bulwark against domination. I will, in part, be considering the merits of this claim. Is the importance of the orthodox realm of the criminal law solely or mainly explained by the wish to protect people from domination? In short, the answer is that it is not. Across the board, the criminal law rightly protects us equally from threats to what Pettit calls ‘effective,’ as opposed to formal, republican freedom. I will develop my critique of Pettit’s account of criminal law, in part to raise questions about the role of ‘domination’ in political theory, and about whether it poses a significant challenge to liberal accounts of criminal law

When sexual infidelity triggers murder: examining the impact of homicide law reform on judicial attitudes in sentencing

In October 2010, the UK Parliament brought into effect law that replaced the partial defence to murder of provocation with a new partial defence of “loss of control”, applicable to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Although it retained some key features of its controversial predecessor, the new partial defence was in part designed better to address the gendered contexts within which a large number of homicides are committed. In examining the impact of the reforms, we will focus on long-held concerns about the treatment of sexual infidelity as a trigger for loss of control in murder cases. The article undertakes an analysis of English case law to evaluate the way in which sexual infidelity-related evidence has influenced perceptions of a homicide defendant's culpability, for the purposes of sentencing, both before and after the implementation of reform. The analysis reveals that, in sentencing offenders post reform, the higher courts have failed to follow the spirit of the reforms respecting the substantive law by effecting a corresponding change in sentencing practice

The courts’ development of the criminal law and the role of declarations

I consider the ways in which the courts use a variety of existing powers to determine the scope of criminal offences, on a prospective basis, through declarations as to the limits or extent of the law. I argue that the courts should be emboldened to build on these powers through greater openness to the circumstances in which declarations may be issued. In particular, courts should be more open to actions for declarations as to the scope of criminal offences brought by a broader range of third parties, such as third sector organisations devoted to exposing wrongdoing

Developmental programming of cardiovascular dysfunction by prenatal hypoxia and oxidative stress.

Fetal hypoxia is a common complication of pregnancy. It has been shown to programme cardiac and endothelial dysfunction in the offspring in adult life. However, the mechanisms via which this occurs remain elusive, precluding the identification of potential therapy. Using an integrative approach at the isolated organ, cellular and molecular levels, we tested the hypothesis that oxidative stress in the fetal heart and vasculature underlies the molecular basis via which prenatal hypoxia programmes cardiovascular dysfunction in later life. In a longitudinal study, the effects of maternal treatment of hypoxic (13% O(2)) pregnancy with an antioxidant on the cardiovascular system of the offspring at the end of gestation and at adulthood were studied. On day 6 of pregnancy, rats (n = 20 per group) were exposed to normoxia or hypoxia ± vitamin C. At gestational day 20, tissues were collected from 1 male fetus per litter per group (n = 10). The remaining 10 litters per group were allowed to deliver. At 4 months, tissues from 1 male adult offspring per litter per group were either perfusion fixed, frozen, or dissected for isolated organ preparations. In the fetus, hypoxic pregnancy promoted aortic thickening with enhanced nitrotyrosine staining and an increase in cardiac HSP70 expression. By adulthood, offspring of hypoxic pregnancy had markedly impaired NO-dependent relaxation in femoral resistance arteries, and increased myocardial contractility with sympathetic dominance. Maternal vitamin C prevented these effects in fetal and adult offspring of hypoxic pregnancy. The data offer insight to mechanism and thereby possible targets for intervention against developmental origins of cardiac and peripheral vascular dysfunction in offspring of risky pregnancy

Bureaucratic 'criminal' law: too much of a bad thing?

My main aim is to argue for the legitimacy of ‘regulatory’ criminal law. Historically more significant as a feature of statecraft than its critics have been prepared to admit, I defend a number of the controversial characteristics of such law. Such features include its tendency to come in the form of numerous discrete offences (where the common law was satisfied with one or two general offences), its preoccupation with less ‘serious’ forms of wrongdoing, and its reliance on omission-based liability. The plausibility of these claims comes through shifting the focus away from the favoured moral high ground of traditional critics of bureaucratic criminal law: the interests and concerns of the individual, as the object of criminalisation. A very large proportion of bureaucratic criminal law is aimed at companies, as objects of criminalisation. Whilst companies must be dealt with in a fair and proportionate manner by the criminal law, as entities they lack the capacity for emotional suffering, dignity and autonomy that would otherwise place greater constraints on the scope for the criminalisation of their activities. In developing my views, I try to maintain a healthy scepticism about the viability of identifying a set of laws that are uniquely and distinctively ‘criminal’