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The Justification Story: Law as Integrity and Deviationist Doctrine
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 April 2015
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I believe that a person accused of wrongdoing should have an opportunity to respond to the charge. This chance is particularly urgent when the accusation, if proved, subjects the accused to punishment. Response to an accusation is expected both by the accuser and the accused. The scope of response to an accusation should include the accused's ability to argue that he or she is not guilty: not blame-worthy; not deserving of sanction.
Response to an accusation may take several forms. The accused might, for example, deny the validity of the charged wrong. That is, he or she might argue that the articulated statement of the wrong, the rule allegedly breached, was not within the authority of the charging party to promulgate; or claim that the creation of the rule by the charging authority was procedurally defective and the rule invalid on that basis regardless of substance. Or, the accused might agree to the substantive and procedural legitimacy of the rule, but deny that he or she did the acts which the charge alleges. Then again, the accused might concede the general legitimacy of the articulated standard of wrongdoing and his or her violation of that standard, the protection of which the person would ordinarily want, but the accused might offer a special case story of exculpation.
The third response, an admission to the doing of a proscribed act followed by an explanation which seeks vindication, is the subject examined here as it operates in the system of criminal law. I call this response the justification story. Legal practice controls the opportunities of one accused of criminal wrongdoing to respond to an accusation with a justification story. I will use two notions, “law as integrity” and “deviationist doctrine,” as ways to ask how the law interprets the justification story in the legal practice of criminal law.
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References
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