Philosophy, Law and Politics (PLP) Graduate Forum: 'Duties to Criminalize: Moral Obligations and Overinclusive Offences'

This event will be discussing Anna Peters' (Cambridge, Law) paper, Duties to Criminalize: Moral Obligations and Overinclusive Offences. Anna argues that states bear duties to criminalize certain moral wrongs because they are obligated to uphold individuals’ rights. Further, as a result of epistemic limits and resource constraints, some of these wrongs must be criminalized overinclusively – i.e., proscribing acts only some tokens of which cause, or threaten to cause, the wrong that the law targets – if they are to be criminalized substantively. Legal officials bear moral duties, therefore, to implement overinclusive offences, contra the wrongness constraint.

A draft of the paper will be distributed a week before the event.

The presentation will begin with comments from Levin Guever (UCL, Law), followed by comments from Massimo Renzo (KCL, Law).

The PLP Graduate Forum is a network of doctoral candidates, early career researchers, and established academics working at the intersection of legal, moral, and political philosophy from seven institutions in Southern England: the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, the University of Surrey, the London School of Economics & Political Science, King's College London, Queen Mary University of London, and University College London.

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