Addressing the ways in which and the grounds on which types of conduct can be justifiably criminalized, the first four chapters of this volume focus on the questions that arise from a consideration of the political constitution of the criminal law. The contributors then turn their attention to the role of the state, its institutions and officials, and their role not only as creators, enactors, interpreters, and enforcers of the criminal law, but also as subjects of it. How can the agents of the criminal law also be answerable to it?

Finally discussion turns to how the criminal law can be constituted as part of an international order. Examining the relationships between domestic laws of different nation-states, and between domestic criminal law and international or transnational law, the chapters also look at the authority and jurisdiction of international criminal law itself, and its relationship to other dimensions of the international order.

A vital examination of one of the most important topics in modern criminal legal theory, this volume raises new questions central to the study of the criminal law and offers new suggestions for addressing them.

Victor Tadros works primarily on the philosophy of criminal law, criminal justice and punishment. He also has interests in general jurisprudence, and moral and political philosophy. He has two published books Criminal Responsibility (OUP, 2005) and The Ends of Harm (OUP, 2011), and he is also writing a book for the Criminalization series entitled Wrongs and Crimes. Prior to his appointment as professor of criminal law and legal theory at the University of Warwick, he held posts at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh.