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.
Books
Reading HLA Hart’s The Concept of Law (with Luis Duarte d’Almeida and Andrea Dolcetti) (Hart, 2013)
Articles
‘Justification as Excuse Plus’ (2025) Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 57
‘Legal Imperfectionism’ (2024) 15 Jurisprudence 282
‘Justification and Motivation’ (2024) Criminal Law and Philosophy (available online)
‘The Internal Morality of Criminal Law’ (with Tarek Yusari) (2023) 43 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 475
‘Standing to Hold Responsible’ (2019) 16 Journal of Moral Philosophy 437-462
‘Crime, Blameworthiness, and Outcomes’ (with Andrew Simester) (2019) 39 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 50-73
‘Laws That Are Made to Be Broken’ (2018) 12 Criminal Law and Philosophy (forthcoming)
‘Criminal Law’s Asymmetry’ (2018) Jurisprudence (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
Book Chapters
‘Justification and Duty’ (with Andrew Simester) in L Green and B Leiter (eds) Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law: Volume 5 (OUP 2024)
‘What We Can Say to Each Other’ in R Chang and A Srinivasan (eds) Conversations in Normative Philosophy (OUP 2024)
‘Explaining Ourselves in Court’ in MM Dempsey and F Tanguay-Renaud (eds) From Law to Morality and Back Again: A Liber Amicorum for John Gardner (OUP 2023)
‘John Gardner’ in M Sellers and S Kirste (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (Springer 2021)
‘The Legal Enforcement of Morality’ in M Sellers and S Kirste (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (Springer 2021)
‘No Offence’ in L Alexander and KK Ferzan (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Applied Ethics and Criminal Law (Palgrave 2019)
‘Theories of Criminal Law’ in Zalta (ed), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2018)
‘An Instrumental Legal Moralism’ in L Green and B Leiter (eds) Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law: Volume 3 (OUP 2018)
‘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)
Book Reviews
‘Rationale-Based Defences in Criminal Law by Mark Dsouza’ (2018) 81(2) Modern Law Review 385-389
‘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