Foundations of Criminal Law is a collection of readings, including expert commentary. Addresses theory and evidence of the crime problem, as well as crime itself and its punishment. Discusses the principle of liability, including accomplice, attempt, and conspiracy liability. Also explores justification and excuse, and sentencing theory and practice.
Leo Katz’s work focuses on criminal law and legal theory more generally. By connecting criminal law, moral philosophy and the theory of social choice, he tries to shed light on some of the most basic building block notions of the law—coercion, deception, consent, and the use and abuse of legal stratagems, among others. Katz is the author of several books: Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law (University of Chicago, 1987); Ill-Gotten Gains: Evasion, Blackmail, Fraud and Kindred Puzzles of the Law (University of Chicago, 1996); and most recently Why the Law Is So Perverse (forthcoming), which he researched with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Together with Stephen Morse and Michael Moore, he edited Foundations of the Criminal Law (Oxford, 1999).