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29 Legal Stud. 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/legstd29 and id is 1 raw text is: 





Complicity, legal scholarship and the law

of unintended consequences*


Richard Taylor
Professor of English Law, Lancashire Law School, University of Central Lancashire

This paper examines, in the context of complicity as an example, how and why scholars
theorise about the basis of the rules governing criminal responsibility and about the
practice of the courts in imposing such responsibility and asks what sort of 'impact' of
legal scholarship should be regarded as desirable or achievable or successful or should or
can be sought. The methods and reasons of such scholars may include the habit and desire
of providing explanations of the outcomes reached by the courts in particular difficult
situations and may also involve developing justifications or critiques of them based on, or
influenced by, theories of moral philosophy. This may also include a desire to influence
fiture outcomes 'in practice'in related factual scenarios in a predictable and 'just'fashion
consistently with the preferred theory. The paper examines whether the language in which
(a contender for) a satisfactory explanation of a theory of derivative responsibility,
expressed in terms inspired by George Fletcher, of complicity in wrongful even if excused
conduct, can be (or has been) satisfactorily transposed into one expressed in language
thought to be more amenable to the courts (such as 'procuring an actus reus'). Case-law
in this area is examined to see whether this sort of transposition does more harm than good
and to what extent compromising or adapting an expression of principle in this manner
may lead to unintended consequences. An alternative conclusion is also examined, which
is that however carefully one formulates rules or statements of principle, unintended
consequences will always or often follow and that this may not necessarily be a bad thing.
Indeed, the ultimate conclusion may be that whilst having a beneficial influence on the
substantive law may be a desirable impact which legal scholarship should aspire to or may
be justified by, to adapt the words of John Gardner in a somewhat different context, having
that impact should not be confused with trying to have that impact, since often it is the
trying which is the problem (Offences and Defences (Oxford University Press, 2007)
p 279).


INTRODUCTION - GENESIS OR EVOLUTION?

It is perfectly natural and healthy, even if potentially somewhat risky, for acade-
mic lawyers to ask themselves from time to time why they do the things they do.
Identifying the reasons for writing a conference paper might well be one aspect of
such an inquiry. In this particular case, the answer would be that it is the result of a
sequence of co-incidences, somewhat like evolution perhaps, to anticipate a point
to be made later, rather than the result of any grand or creative or even intelligent'
design.


*    Winner of the SLS Annual Conference Best Paper Prize 2008.
1.   The least likely adjective in the instant case, some might say.

@ 2009 The Author. Journal Compilation © 2009 The Society of Legal Scholars. Published by Blackwell Publishing,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

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