Melbourne University Law Review Annual Lecture, Hosted by MLS
'Punishment and Responsibility: An Assessment of Moral Culpability in Sentencing’
Presented by The Hon Justice Karin Emerton, President of the Court of Appeal.
Sentencing is based on a conception of people as rational, autonomous actors.
However, day to day, judges are tasked with sentencing offenders whose capacity to exercise appropriate judgment and make calm and rational choices is compromised — even though they are considered criminally responsible.
The notion of a rational and responsible agent as the touchstone for assessing culpability often leads to a heavy reliance on expert psychological evidence. However, this arguably reductive analysis of culpability through the lens of psychologism is not necessarily well adapted to dealing with the reality of structural disadvantage in the criminal justice system.
The lecture will examine two ways the courts have sought to manage these difficulties consistently with the principle of individualised justice: principles for the mitigation of moral culpability (R v Verdins) and the principles articulated in Bugmy v The Queen: Those streams came together in DPP v Hermann.
Please join Melbourne Law School (MLS) and Melbourne University Law Review (MULR) from 5:00 pm with welcome drinks and light refreshments provided in the ground foyer. The lecture will start at 6:00 pm sharp in ground floor theatre G08.
The Hon Justice Karin Emerton, President of the Court of Appeal, Victoria
Justice Karin Emerton was appointed to the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Victoria in October 2009. For eight years, her Honour was the Judge in Charge of the Valuation Compensation and Planning List in the Common Law Division. As a result, her Honour sat principally in common law matters, most frequently in cases involving land use disputes and related commercial matters.
From 2010 to 2012, Justice Emerton was a member of the Victorian Law Reform Commission. In June 2018, Justice Emerton was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal and in 2022, her Honour was appointed President of the Court of Appeal.
Immediately prior to her appointment as a judge, Justice Emerton was Crown Counsel (Advisings) in the Department of Justice and, before that, her Honour was a barrister at the Victorian Bar for 14 years. Her Honour’s practice was primarily in the area of public law.
Justice Emerton came to the law by a circuitous route, having first completed a Doctorate in Philosophy at the Sorbonne.
