Antony Duff, 'Taking Criminal Responsibility'

null, Antony Duff

ABSTRACT. This paper is concerned not with being, or being held, responsible, but with taking responsibility, as something active and potentially creative. I discuss what it is to take responsibility, both prospectively and retrospectively, especially in relation to the criminal law: how we can, and why we should, take prospective responsibility for the criminal law as citizens; what taking retrospective responsibility for our crimes can amount to, and why it matters; and whether, in either context, we can take, and thus create, responsibilities that we would not otherwise have.