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The United States today suffers from too much criminal law and too much punishment. Husak describes the phenomena in some detail and explores their relation, and why these trends produce massive injustice. His primary goal is to defend a set of constraints that limit the authority of states to enact and enforce penal offenses. The book urges the weight and relevance of this topic in the real world, and notes that most Anglo-American legal philosophers have neglected it. Husak's secondary goal is to situate this endeavor in criminal theory as traditionally construed. He argues that many of the resources to reduce the size and scope of the criminal law can be derived from within the criminal law itself-even though these resources have not been used explicitly for this purpose. Additional constraints emerge from a political view about the conditions under which important rights such as the right implicated by punishment - may be infringed. When conjoined, these constraints produce what Husak calls a minimalist theory of criminal liability. Husak applies these constraints to a handful of examples-most notably, to the justifiability of drug proscriptions.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• 1 The Amount of Criminal Law(p. 3)
• I Too Much Punishment, Too Many Crimes(p. 4)
• II How Mare Crimes Produce Injustice(p. 17)
• III The Content of New Offenses(p. 33)
• IV An Example of Overcriminalization(p. 45)
• 2 Internal Constraints on Criminalization(p. 55)
• I The "General Part" of Criminal Law(p. 58)
• II From Punishment to Criminalization(p. 77)
• III A Right Not to Be Punished?(p. 92)
• IV Malum Prohibitum(p. 103)
• 3 External Constraints on Criminalization(p. 120)
• I Infringing the Right Not to Be Punished(p. 122)
• II The Devil in the Details(p. 132)
• III Crimes of Risk Prevention(p. 159)
• 4 Alternative Theories of Criminalization(p. 178)
• I Law and Economics(p. 180)
• II Utilitarianism(p. 188)
• III Legal Moralism(p. 196)
• Table of Cases(p. 207)
• Bibliography(p. 209)
• Index(p. 225)

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CHOICE Review

Currently the US incarcerates more than one in every 100 adults; in addition, over seven million are on parole or probation. In his critically important and easily readable book, Husak (philosophy, Rutgers Univ.) argues that this is not a justifiable incarceration rate. Husak formulates a theory of criminalization that enables him to criticize present rates of punishment. He provides a rational basis for criminal law that serves to impugn the present hodgepodge of irrational laws, which serve more to incarcerate people than to protect society. Husak argues that the law has been overcriminalized. Through both theory and practice he explains his position clearly and coherently, while providing a sound basis for the realistic reform of crime and punishment. Chapter 1 serves to make clear the need for reform, focusing in part on the injustice overcriminalization creates. His responses to the current incarceration nightmare are not simplistic. For example, in chapter 3 he acknowledges that the details will challenge needed reform efforts. As Husak frighteningly notes, we may not get serious about criminal law reform until the economic realities of overcriminalization become widely known, but his reasoned analysis should make people consider reform before the train has left the tracks completely. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. M. A. Foley Marywood University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Douglas Husak is Professor at Philosophy and Law at Rutgers University. The State University of New Jersey. He writes on all aspects of legal philosophy, and, more generally, in ethics. He is particularly interested in the connections between moral philosophy and the substantive criminal law-especially decisions about the moral limits of the criminal sanction. This latter interest has led to a critical examination of the rationale for drug prohibitions.