Criminal Law and the Relational Self: Rethinking Conceptions of Harm and Responsibility in an Interdependent World

Traditional understandings of the self are individualistic, with a focus on values such as autonomy, independence and self-sufficiency. Under such a model, a person is clearly responsible for their own actions, but not responsible for the acts of others. Harms to the self are those which interfere with bodily integrity and self-determination. A relational approach to the self understands the self as constituted in and through relationships. Under such an approach, the key values the law should uphold are those of inter-dependence, care and vulnerability. This means that the core harms for the purposes of criminal law are acts which undermine the capacity to enter and enjoy relationships of care. Further, we have responsibilities within relationships which mean we owe duties to each other and cannot simply declare that each person alone is responsible for their actions. This lecture will explore how understanding the self in a relational way opens up new ways of understanding harm and responsibility within the criminal law. It will focus on new offences which recognise the importance of relational wrongs such as coercive control, image-based sexual abuse and strangulation. It will also unpack the issues within the law of causation, which fail to recognise the importance of relational duties.