Dr James Edwards
MA (Cantab), BCL, MSt, DPhil (Oxon)
Lecturer
I read law as an undergraduate at Cambridge, before moving to Oxford for postgraduate study. I was brought up just outside York, where I attended my local comprehensive school. Though I worried that the surroundings would be too alien, and the courses too difficult, my student years – in both Cambridge and Oxford – were some of the best of my life. I made great friends, learnt a tremendous amount and fell in love with my subject. I strongly believe that Oxford needs more students from a wide range of different backgrounds. If you’re intellectually curious and hard working, I urge you to apply for a place.
Before taking up my current position, I was Stipendiary Lecturer in Law at Hertford College, Oxford (2010–11), and Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Christ’s College, Cambridge (2011–14).
I teach Criminal Law and Jurisprudence, compulsory papers in the first and second years respectively. I teach Jurisprudence and Political Theory, and Philosophical Foundations of the Common Law, to graduate students on the BCL/MJur.
I’m interested in legal, moral and political philosophy, with a particular interest in the philosophical foundations of the criminal law.
1. Books
Reading HLA Hart’s The Concept of Law (co-edited with Luis Duarte d’Almeida and Andrea Dolcetti) (Hart Publishing, 2013)
2. Articles
‘Laws That Are Made to Be Broken’ (2018) Criminal Law and Philosophy (forthcoming)
‘Criminal Law’s Asymmetry’ (2018) Jurisprudence (forthcoming)
‘An Instrumental Legal Moralism’ (2018) 3 Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law (forthcoming)
‘Criminalization Without Punishment’ (2017) 23 Legal Theory 69-95
‘What’s Public About Crime?’ (co-author: Andrew Simester) (2017) 37 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 105-133
‘Harm Principles’ (2014) 20 Legal Theory 253-285
‘Some Claims About Law’s Claims’ (co-author: Luis Duarte d’Almeida) (2014) 33 Law and Philosophy 725-746
‘Wrongfulness and Prohibitions’ (co-author: Andrew Simester) (2014) 8 Criminal Law and Philosophy 171-186
‘Coming Clean About the Criminal Law’ (2011) 5 Criminal Law and Philosophy 315-332
‘Justice Denied: The Criminal Law and the Ouster of the Courts’ (2010) 30 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 725-748
3. Book Chapters
‘Prevention with a Moral Voice’ (co-author: Andrew Simester) in Simester, du Bois-Pedain and Neumann (eds), Liberal Criminal Theory: Essays for Andreas von Hirsch (Hart 2014)
‘Hart’s Readers’ (co-authors: Luis Duarte d’Almeida and Andrea Dolcetti) in Duarte d’Almeida Edwards and Dolcetti (eds), Reading HLA Hart’s The Concept of Law (Hart Publishing, 2013)
‘Criminal Law’ (co-author: John Gardner) in LaFollette (ed), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Wiley, 2013)
4. Book Reviews
‘Master Principles of Criminalisation’ (2016) 7(1) Jurisprudence 138-148
‘The Ends of Harm by Victor Tadros’ [2012] 128 Law Quarterly Review 466-469
‘Crimes, Harms, and Wrongs by AP Simester and Andreas von Hirsch’ [2012] 1 Criminal Law Review 75-78