Abstract
In the criminal law, responsibility is best understood in terms of answerability. For a person to be answerable, s/he must be capable of responding to, and acting on, reasons. Certain conditions must also be fulfilled for a specific society to have a right to hold the person answerable. Specifically, the society must have (moral) standing. The chapter considers both these sets of conditions and the ways in which accounts of the cultural defence interact with them. It argues that these accounts identify real issues that need to be addressed, but that the significant influence of culture on individuals in most cases neither undermines the responsibility of the agent nor the standing of the state to hold that agent to account.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Criminal Law and Cultural Diversity |
Editors | Will Kymlicka, Claes Lernested, Matt Matravers |
Place of Publication | Oxford |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 89-103 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-0199676590 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |