Abstract
The paper challenges a fundamental premise that underlies R A Duff’s new
book “The Realm of the Criminal Law”: the premise that criminalization theory must lead us to one master principle. Instead of striving for one unified theory, it seems preferable to be pluralistic from the outset and to develop separate theories of criminalization. The principles that are
necessary to evaluate (potential) prohibitions in criminal laws should be
developed separately for different groups of conduct: first, conduct that is incompatible with important collective interests; secondly, violent attacks against other persons; third, other conduct that violates another person’s
right to non-intervention.
