Criminal Law
Volledige vakbeschrijving
Criminal law plays an important role in regulating human conduct and its rules work to maintain social order and to protect citizens from harm. Even though every (European) country has its legal culture, and its own criminal law, each system may be understood as a ‘local’ answer to some ‘universal’ questions that constitute the foundation of criminal law. Therefore, the objective of this course is to identify various core principles and concepts of substantive criminal law by using a comparative methodology and to reflect on the ‘deep structure’ behind various (European) systems of criminal law, without ignoring cultural differences and legal sensitivities.
The main aim of this course is to get acquainted with the elementary concepts of the so-called general part of substantive criminal law, as well as some selected offences from the special part and to explore the main differences and similarities between several European legal systems, like the common law system of England and Wales and the civil law system of the Netherlands and Germany. The main (general) concepts that will be studied are: theories of punishment, principles of criminalisation, the objective and subjective elements of an offence (actus reus and mens rea), justifications and excuses, inchoate offences and modes of participation. In addition, we will investigate how criminal justice systems have regulated certain specific offences such as homicide, property offences and sexual offences.
This seven week course will combine seven sessions of group tutorials and several lectures. According to the philosophy of problem-based learning, tutorial meetings shall be used to explore various concepts of substantive criminal law in different countries on the basis of some reading assignments, presentations and case studies. Using comparative literature students are asked to answer given background questions and specific questions on the case studies.
Doelstellingen van dit vak
The object of this course is to identify various principles, rules and concepts of the so-called general part, as well as selected offences of the special part of criminal law, by using a conceptual and comparative methodology. Upon completion of this course, the student must be able to
- analyse and understand main concepts and rules of substantive criminal law;
- to understand and compare the main differences and similarities of the basic criminal liability concepts of three major European legal systems, i.e. the Netherlands, Germany, and the common law system of England and Wales;
- to understand and compare the main differences and similarities with regard to how criminal justice systems have regulated homicide and femicide, as well as property and sexual offences and to critically reflect on them;
- to analyse and understand the constituent elements and core concepts of homicide, property and sexual offences;
- to critically reflect on some basic philosophical aspects and (recent) historical developments related to principles of criminalisation and rules of criminal liability;
- to recognise and debate some societal and ethically relevant aspects of developments in substantive criminal law (e.g. terrorism, homicide, property, and sexual offences)
- to distil a problem in criminal law cases and to identify and apply the relevant rules and criteria in order to solve the cases (in a comparative way);
- to communicate and debate during the tutorials possible solutions of a criminal law case in a well-argued and substantiated way
Voorwaarden
None
Aanbevolen voorkennis
No specific prior knowledge on criminal law is required
Aanbevolen literatuur
The necessary reading material for this course consists of the following:
- A handbook: J. Keiler & D. Roef (eds.), Comparative Concepts of Criminal Law, Cambridge, Intersentia, 2019.
- A reading list (e-reader) with required literature.