Conference

Conference: Revisiting Legal Interests and Public Goods in Criminal Law

Date

Thursday 22 June 2023 - Friday 23 June 2023

Address

Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw
Steenschuur 25
2311ES Leiden

Leiden University organizes a two-day conference titled ‘Criminalisation and its Limits: Revisiting Public Goods and Legal Interests in Domestic and Transnational Criminal Law’, offering a venue for criminal law scholars and practitioners to exchange thoughts, ideas and experiences on these subject matters.

The aim of the conference is to clarify the meaning and definition of public goods and legal interests (Rechtsgüter) in criminal law, and explore the connections between these two concepts, and – among other issues – their relationship to the theory of harm (e.g. Mill, Feinberg). Although both concepts stem from the premise that society should consider protecting certain goods or interests by means of criminal law, they seem to differ in whether these goods should be of an individual or collective nature. Given their pivotal role in imposing  specific normative perspectives on criminal law, it is necessary to improve our understanding of the contemporary meaning of public goods and legal interests, in order to critically analyze and circumscribe the proper scope of criminal law.

The theme of the conference will be scrutinized from three angles – national criminal law, EU criminal law, and international criminal law –  and it will be examined from a general perspective as well as in relation to specific areas of crime, and alternately in plenary sessions and in parallel discussion groups.

More information

More information on the programme and price of the conference.