Misleading Cases

The law, and the criminal law in particular, depends, in its quest for fairness and justice, upon the accurate definition of key concepts and ideas.

This book argues that, in respect of several key concepts, the courts have arrived at mistaken decisions and handed down bad judgments about the nature of such concepts. These concepts are expressed by words which the courts explicitly hold are "ordinary words in the English language" to be taken in their ordinary sense. They include such concepts as meaning, attempt, intention, knowledge, awareness, recklessness, dishonesty, duress, privacy, truth and belief.

It also argues that the mistaken decisions about the meanings of words expressed in these concepts are based on purely conceptual errors and that, therefore, they are embodied in misleading cases.