Can we hold individuals criminally responsible for harms their actions caused when, at the time of acting, they did not realise that their actions risked bringing about those harms?

This persistent and unresolved question strikes at the heart of criminal liability for inadvertent negligence in legal systems worldwide. This open access volume brings together a diverse group of contributors to discuss the criminalisation of inadvertent negligence. Significantly, the authors hail from two very different legal traditions – Anglo-American and Germanic – which have to date not engaged in dialogue about this important criminal law topic. This edited volume addresses this gap in the literature.

The contributions to this collection explore the similarities and differences between legal traditions, and foster cross-jurisdictional exchange, whilst critically reflecting on the normative strengths and weaknesses of different legal vantage points. The collection accordingly incorporates theoretical, philosophical and psychological insights from experienced scholars and new voices, thereby offering a multidimensional account of why, and under what conditions, those who are unaware of a particular risk of harm at the time of acting can, or cannot, justifiably be punished when those harms do result.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law.

Philipp-Alexander Hirsch is Leader of the Independent Research Group “Criminal Law Theory” at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg, Germany.
Findlay Stark is Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Johannes Stefan Weigel is Doctoral Researcher in the Independent Research Group "Criminal Law Theory” at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Germany.