Overcriminalization

“This is a rich and thought-provoking account of a much undertheorized and yet hugely important issue…Husak’s book signals a bold attempt to ‘shake up’ the discipline and to reignite our interest in the core issues of justice, wrong, blame, desert, and proportionality with which we should be concerned.”–Vanessa E. Munro, New Criminal Law Review”Trying to stem the tide of fatuous law that emanates from our incontinent legislatures, at least in the US and the UK, is a luckless and thankless task. I admire Husak enormously for his willingness to take the task on, and for the lively, sensible, and good-natured tone that he brings to it. I also admire his anti-authoritarian and anti-managerial moral instincts, sadly at odds with the spirit of the age. But most of all I admire Husak as a professionalphilosopher of law. His work is clear, thorough, patient, ingenious, insightful, informed, imaginative, and highly distinctive. Overcriminalization is no exception. Even those who are pessimistic about thepossibility of deliberately effecting political change through academic work have a huge amount to learn from this wise, timely, and well-written book.“–John Gardner, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews”Critically important and easily readable.Highly recommended.“–CHOICE”Douglas Husak embarks upon a provocative and urgent search for a theoretical framework that will enable legislators to identify which of the growing number of criminal law interventions in our daily lives are justified.” –Vanessa E. Munro, University of Nottingham”It is impossible in a review of this length to do justice to Husak’s multilayered exploration of the phenomenon of modern overcriminalization and the theoretical frameworks that might be invoked to redress the injustice that it has generated. This is a rich and thought-provoking account of a much under theorized and yet hugely important issue.“–Vanessa E. Munro, University of Nottingham

Douglas Husak is Professor of Philosophy and Law at Rutgers University.