Subjects:

Criminal Law

Contents:

The early centuries of development

the 17th century

honour, anger, and virtue

anger as outrage

the rise of loss of self-control

justifying mitigation morally

other moral aspects of retaliation

excusing action in anger

anger, mitigation, and gender.

Surprisingly little has been written by lawyers about the effect of provocation on culpability for homicide in English law, yet the question of what our moral attitudes should be towards someone who kills or injures another in anger has been a source of lively philosophical controversy for centuries. ""Provocation and Responsibility"" is a study of this subject. A philosophical enquiry into the moral character of actions in anger, it seeks to resolve the philosophical controversies generated by setting them in the context of an examination of the place of anger in human nature throughout history. This book draws on historical and philosophical sources not normally linked with criminal law, and provides a history of the plea of provocation as a defence to murder in England.