Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah

This course is compulsory on the BA in Anthropology and Law and LLB in Laws. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

The course examines the 'general part' of criminal law and selected areas of the special part of criminal law in the context of theories of the aims and functions of criminalisation. The course will discuss the limits to criminalisation; the conceptual framework of criminal liability (conduct, responsibility, capacity, defences); homicide; sexual offences; non-fatal violence against the person;  property offences (with particular reference theft, fraud, robbery and burglary);secondary participation in crime; attempts, conspiracy, encouragement; 'pre-inchoate' offences; regulatory offences.

This course will have a minimum of two hours of teaching content each week in Michaelmas Term and Lent Term in the form of a lecture (every week) and class (week 2 onwards). This course includes a reading week in Weeks 6 of Michaelmas Term and Lent Term.

A minimum of two pieces of written work will be required (one per term), usually one essay and one problem.

A detailed reading list will be distributed at the start of the course. A number of criminal law textbooks are available, and students will be expected to read the relevant parts of the most recent editions of one of these, e.g. Nicola Lacey, Oliver Quick & Celia Wells, Reconstructing Criminal Law; Andrew Ashworth and Jeremy Horder, Principles of Criminal Law; Jonathan Herring, Criminal Law: Text, Cases and Materials; M. Allen, Introduction to Criminal Law. They will also be expected to read all cases and materials marked as primary on the detailed reading lists provided.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.