Conference: Intoxication, Addiction and the Criminal Law, Sussex

External Event - 13th Jan 2018

Co-Hosted by the Sussex Crime Research Centre (CRC) and Sussex Addiction Research and Intervention Centre (SARIC)

This is an open invitation to attend a one-day international interdisciplinary conference exploring intoxicated and/or addicted offenders. Places are limited, so registration is essential. Intoxication, Addiction and the Criminal Law Co-Hosted by the Sussex Crime Research Centre (CRC) and Sussex Addiction Research and Intervention Centre (SARIC).

The conference brings together international experts from across law, philosophy and neuroscience to discuss intoxicated and/or addicted offenders. We will investigate the impact of intoxication on the brain of a defendant, and how this links with increased criminal behaviour.

We will analyse the legal response to intoxicated offenders who lack ‘mental fault’ due to their state of intoxication, questioning what the legal response should be. We will explore the complicating factor of addiction, understanding the physical and mental impacts of the disease, and how (if at all) this affects/should affect criminal responsibility.

The conference also launches a research project into the design of a new ‘prior fault offence’.

Date and time

Saturday 13th January 2018, 9:00-17:30

Location

Conference Centre, Bramber House, University of Sussex Fully Catered & Free Parking On-Site

Registration

Registration is just £20, or free for CRC and SARIC members

Confirmed Speakers 

• Douglas Husak, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University, US – ‘Intoxication and Culpability’
• Val Curran, Professor of Psychopharmacology, University College London, UK – Title TBC
• Paul H. Robinson, Colin S. Diver Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, US – ‘What Effect Should Intoxication Have on Criminal Liability?’
• Dora Duka, Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex, UK – ‘Acute and Chronic Effects of Alcohol on Cognitive and Emotional Processes’
• Ronnie Mackay, Professor of Criminal Policy & Mental Health, De Montfort University, UK – ‘The Fault Factor in Automatism and Insanity’
• Susan Dimock, Professor of Philosophy, York University, CA – ‘No Penal Principle is Sacred: Impacts of a Failed Approach to Intoxicated Offenders’
• Aldo Badiani, Professor of Psychology & Addiction Medicine, University of Sussex, UK – ‘Drug addiction is a brain disease but not a drug-induced brain disease’
• Project team: John Child, Hans Crombag, Rudi Fortson QC – ‘A New Prior Fault Offence: The Challenges Ahead’

Conference Organisers

• Hans Crombag, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Sussex
• John Child, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex
• Stavros Demetriou, Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex 

For more details and to register for the conference please click here.