New Philosophy of Criminal Law

these concerns). At any rate, something like this may be at the bottom of many worries about overcriminalization—and it has to do not, or not only, with the fact that there are many unjust laws but with the fact that there simply may be too many laws.

This might seem to be an exaggeration, but it is less so for some groups of people than for others (indeed, the racial disparities throughout the criminal justice system only exacerbate

More laws give prosecutors more leeway in threatening charges—and so a stronger hand in plea bargaining negotiations

an objection might be made that many of our criminal laws lack the right kind of pedigree: they no longer have the support of the majority of the people, or they were passed based on biased or mistaken information

many of our criminal laws do not protect against any genuine harm, or that other means besides criminalization would be better suited to accomplishing this goal

existing laws that criminalize things that are actually not immoral.

have the wrong kind of justification

we have many criminal laws that are not justified,

the categories the various legal systems of the world (or, usually, the U.S. and English legal systems)

Focusing too closely only on the various parts of the system oversimplifies, and distorts, the criminal law theorist’s task.