8) Theory of Criminal Law

• SHOULD HARM BE THE BASIS FOR CRIMINALISING CONDUCT?

  1. Agree: The starting point for having criminal law is that everyone has the right to be free from harm. This idea can be seen by having non-fatal offences to protect individuals against physical harm from others. Regulatory offences like strict liability deal with the risk of harm to the public by, criminalising conduct causing pollution. There is also the view that some conduct should be criminalised in order to protect us from doing harm. This is the idea of ‘paternalistic’ law, e.g. the use of controlled drugs such as heroin is illegal.