Michael Plaxton

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Title & Subtitle Abstract Contributors Pages Year Purchase

Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

Canadian Criminal Law in the 21st Century

Students, academics, and lawyers often think of the substantive criminal law as if it were just another branch of the common law. On this understanding, it falls to the courts to decide on a … 614 View
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Introduction: Three Pillars of Canadian Criminal Law

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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The introduction outlines the structure of the book as well as its three primary theses: the statutory interpretation thesis, the restraint thesis, and the guidance thesis. 39 $3.90 Add
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Mostly Sovereign

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 1 considers the constitutional and statutory context within which criminal legislation is created and interpreted. It examines the boundaries placed on Parliament’s criminal … 44 $4.40 Add
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Reading Criminal Offences

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 2 concerns the rules that govern statutory interpretation. In interpreting criminal offences, courts are bound by the legislative purposes underpinning and animating the relevant … 50 $5.00 Add
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Common Law Expansions of Criminal Liability

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 3 considers the Supreme Court’s underdeveloped approach to section 8(3) of the Criminal Code, which preserves common law “justifications and excuses.” Although the … 43 $4.30 Add
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Courts Constraining Parliament? Restraint and De Minimis

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 4 explains the interpretive presumption that, in devising criminal offences, Parliament did not intend to target courses of action that are widely believed to be morally permissible or, … 19 $1.90 Add
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Presuming Restraint

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 5 looks at a number of substantive criminal law doctrines in which one can see the gravitational pull of the presumption of restraint. In particular, it considers the courts’ … 39 $3.90 Add
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Consent and Restraint in the Law of Assault

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 6 shows how differences in legislative purpose can transform the meaning of superficially similar concepts and language, and that the courts can sometimes struggle to cope with … 32 $3.20 Add
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“A Complex Piece of Writing”

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 7 examines the judicial treatment of section 163(8) of the Criminal Code, which defines “obscenity.” We will see that the history of the Supreme Court’s approach to this … 42 $4.20 Add
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A More Modest Principle of Voluntariness

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 8 argues that, in construing offence provisions, courts have proceeded on the basis that it would be absurd to attribute an intention, on the part of Parliament, to target involuntary … 25 $2.50 Add
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Representative Labelling

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 9 examines a further implication of the guidance function, taking the Supreme Court’s majority decision in Martineau as its point of departure. In Martineau, the majority struck … 36 $3.60 Add
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Fault and Guidance

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 10 argues that, inasmuch as criminal offences are intended to guide the conduct of members of the public, there is no intrinsic need to set out express fault requirements. Moreover, … 35 $3.50 Add
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Mistake and Moral Proximity

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 11 both qualifies and advances the theme that courts have tended to interpret the fault requirement for criminal offences in a manner that resists an impact on guidance. Since the … 44 $4.40 Add
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Guidance, Culpability, and Mistake of Law

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 12 examines the doctrine that errors of law cannot excuse. The doctrine has sometimes been criticized as unfair to defendants. But from a guidance-centred perspective, it would be … 31 $3.10 Add
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Justifications, Excuses, and Institutional Defences

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 13 examines criminal defences. The courts play an expanded role in crafting and developing defences, particularly with respect to those classified as “excuses.” This chapter … 44 $4.40 Add
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Incapacity and the Ladder of Agency

From: Sovereignty, Restraint, and Guidance

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Chapter 14 reflects on the common law approach to non-mental disorder automatism. Critics have complained that the scope of the “defence” has been inappropriately narrowed by the … 27 $2.70 Add