Responsible Mind in South African Criminal Law, The

Product Details:
Author(s):
Grant, J
Year Published:
2018
Edition
1st Edition
Type:
Print | Soft Cover
Language:
English
About this publication
South African criminal law has accepted that it is only fair to punish those who – if they do wrong – are responsible for doing wrong. Responsibility – that the accused must be blameworthy – finds expression in several specific requirements of South African criminal law: voluntariness, fault, and, in particular, capacity, into which the ‘insanity’ defence falls. The Responsible Mind in South African Criminal Law critically analyses these requirements, and includes an empirical component in this analysis.
The book also identifies and critically analyses the underlying model of responsibility adopted in our law and considers the alternatives. The conclusion from the empirical component and critical analysis is that the specific requirements are unclear and even incoherent, and that this is a function of the underlying model of responsibility, which identifies random capricious and arbitrary conduct as responsible conduct. Alternative models of responsibility are discussed, and a ‘compatibilist’ model of reason sensitivity is selected as a better foundation for criminal responsibility.
The Responsible Mind in South African Criminal Law discusses the implications of adopting this model for the various specific requirements of South African criminal law and proposes appropriate modifications. Ultimately a new model of criminal responsibility and a revised set of specific requirements are proposed, together with a proposed new statutory test for responsibility.
Content
Table of Cases
Part I: Introduction
Introduction
Responsibility
Criminal liability: General requirements
Unlawful conduct
Culpability
History and development
Expert opinion evidence and empirical research
A possible golden thread: Proper functioning
Part II: Criminal responsibility: The law as it is
South African criminal law of responsibility: conceptual framework
Capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of one’s conduct
Capacity to conduct oneself in accordance with an appreciation of wrongfulness and voluntariness
Pathological non-responsibility
Non-pathological non-responsibility
Part III: The philosophy of responsibility
Philosophy of mind: responsibility
Part IV: Criminal responsibility—the law as it ought to be
Implications and recommendations
Conclusion
Appendices
Interest / Benefit to
Legal academics
Legal practitioners
Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists