'... undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course.'
John Taggart, Criminal Law Review

This outstanding account of modern English criminal law combines detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law, covering all subjects taught at undergraduate level.

The book's philosophical approach ensures students have a deeper understanding of the law that goes beyond a purely doctrinal knowledge. As a result, over its numerous editions, it has become required reading for criminal law courses. The ninth edition covers all statutory law including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Online Safely Act 2023, and the Public Order Act 2023. Case law discussions now cover R v Iqbal (2023) and Auriol Grey (2024).

J J Child is Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Birmingham and Co-founding Director of the Criminal Law Reform Now Network.

AP Simester is Amaladass Professor of Criminal Justice and Co-Director of the Centre for Legal Theory at the National University of Singapore, and Edmund-Davies Professor of Criminal Law at King's College London, UK.

Findlay Stark is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, UK.

GJ Virgo is Professor of English Private Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. Photograph courtesy of University of Cambridge.

John Stanton-Ife is a Senior Lecturer at The Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College London.