Concept Essays

Question 1

What are the three concept essays?

Answer 1

Law & Justice
Law & Fault
Principles of criminal law

Question 2

What is justice defined as?

Answer 2

‘just conduct/fairness’ - Oxford English Dictionary

Question 3

What are the two types of justice in Law & Justice?

Answer 3

Prodedural Justice - how fair procedures in the system are

Substantive Justice - how just the laws themselves are

Question 4

What are the four theories of justice?

Answer 4

-Aristotle - Corrective justice
-Aquinas - Natural Law Theory
-Bentham - Utilitarianism
-Nozick - Minimal State Theory

Question 5

What is the theory of corrective justice?

Answer 5

Proposed by Aristotle - a just law which aims to restore the victim to their original position

Question 6

What is the natural law theory?

Answer 6

Developed by St Thomas Aquinas - there is a higher natural law by God which brings justice, other laws by Parliament should only be followed to avoid social disorder

Question 7

What is the theory of Utilitarianism?

Answer 7

Proposed by Bentham - a law is just if it benefits the majority of people, even if this results in injustice for the minority (Used in Law&Justice)

Question 8

What is the minimal state theory?

Answer 8

Proposed by Nozick - state interference should be kept to a minimum to achieve a just society, unless human rights are threatened

Question 9

What is the definition of fault in Law&Fault?

Answer 9

OED defined as ‘something wrongly done, mistake, culpability’ - a legal and moral term to describe a persons blameworthiness.

Question 10

How does the legal system use fault?

Answer 10

Fault-based legal system - used as a marker of blame that imposes responsibility and therefore justifies imposition of penalties - D’s liability is based on their degree of fault

Question 11

How is fault linked to criminal law specifically?

Answer 11

The D will only be punished if they can be shown to be the blame ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’ The more fault, the higher the sentence

Question 12

What are the two types of principles of criminal law?

Answer 12

harm and autonomy of individual responsibility

Question 13

What are the four principles used to formulate criminal law?

Answer 13

Fair labelling, correspondence, maximum certainty, no retrospective liability

Question 14

What is harm? (principles of criminal law)

Answer 14

Causing harm to yourself, others or property; as well as harming society through hate speech. It is a key component of criminalising offences and justifies the imposing of harsh punishment

Question 15

What is autonomy of individual responsibility? (principles of criminal law)

Answer 15

A person chooses, instigates or causes their own actions, and therefore be held responsible for them. The only time autonomy should be limited is where it limits harm.

Question 16

What is fair labelling? (principles of criminal law)

Answer 16

The offence a defendant is convicted of must adequately describe the kind of crime they have committed. Only criminals should be labelled as their crime (e.g murderers) unless exceptions (e.g war, self-defence)

Question 17

What is correspondence (principles of criminal law)

Answer 17

There must be a link between the actus reus and mens rea (e.g dishonest appropriation in theft), in order for criminal law to be fair

Question 18

What is maximum certainty? (principles of criminal law)

Answer 18

The law must be clear so that a person knows what conduct is criminal

Question 19

What is meant by ‘no retrospective liability?’ (principles of criminal law)

Answer 19

The law should only apply when it is made an offence, so it should not be applied retrospectively.