Mental Conditions of Criminal Responsibility

Abstract

Professor Hart has contributed significantly to the critical evaluation of the principles of legal punishment. Unfortunately, Hart’s discussions occur in various articles and not in one coherent treatise, although most of them have been collected into one volume (PR). These articles are arranged in rough topical order, but as the papers were separately written over many years some arguments and ideas occur several times in different versions. The discussion of Hart’s views on punishment is split into two chapters. This chapter primarily focuses on analytical issues about principles of responsibility underlying Anglo-American criminal law. The next chapter emphasizes normative issues—the justification of punishment.