Nordic Criminal Law as a Normative Project: A Book Forum (May 30, 2024)

Nordic criminal law is often thought of as a distinctive tradition and mode of thinking about and making criminal law. But what are we talking about when we are talking about “Nordic criminal law”? Is Nordic criminal law worth appreciating, preserving, or perhaps even developing, and, if so, why? What about the increasingly clear indications that Nordic penal practice does not align with the dominant perception of Nordic criminal law?

Jørn Jacobsen’s Power, Principle, and Progress: Kant and the Republican Philosophy of Nordic Criminal Law (2024) addresses this multifaceted challenge of analysis and justification by developing a normative account of Nordic criminal law as a distinctive regional approach to the broader obligation of constructing and implementing a conception of criminal law as an essential part of the political arrangements necessary to promote external freedom.

The event proceedings, including the panelists’ commentaries and the author’s response, will appear in a special online MCLR+ book forum later this year.

The book is available online open access here; for additional materials, please consult MCLR+ Resources (“Nordic Criminal Law”).

May 30, 2024 @ 12pm (EDT)

► To join us for this free online event, please register here. Registration is encouraged, but not required; if you prefer to join the event directly, head over to the MCLR+ YouTube channel at the time of the event (please note the time zone). All attendees will have the opportunity to post questions and comments via YouTube live chat.

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