Perspectives on functionality in the criminal law-system: The purpose and construction of criminal intent
By Kine Knutsen Angeltveit, research fellow. PhD project, starting 2011.
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Project summary:
The starting point for this project is a critical view of the often pragmatic way that the argument of functionality is used in the criminal law. The project aims at analyzing how, and on what grounds, the argument of functionality is used in the criminal law.
The more specific research topic is the construction of criminal intent. Intention is essentially a psychological or moral phenomenon that within the domain of criminal law has been transformed into a legal phenomenon, i.e., into ‘criminal intent’. The project aims at analyzing the construction of criminal intent on the background of this transformation.
What are the legal criteria for establishing criminal intent, and how could and should these criteria be justified? The argument of functionality seems, in this regard to be a central argument in the legal construction of criminal intent. A core question in the project is therefore how the argument of functionality has affected the construction of criminal intent and how this type of argument should be used. More generally the project aims at a theoretical account of the construction of criminal intent.
Contact Kine Knutsen Angeltveit for more information.