Restoring the Moral Landscape: Character and Blame in Stuart Green's 'Thirteen Ways to Steal a Bicycle'

Abstract

Stuart Green’s Thirteen Ways to Steal a Bicycle is a thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of the law and morality of theft that sets the terms of a long-overdue debate about the shift toward consolidation in Anglo-American theft law. Despite Green’s considerable achievement, however, I argue that his mixed approach — adopting a mixed theory of criminal responsibility and a mixed methodological approach — neglects relevant moral distinctions. In particular, I suggest that attention to motive and character may broaden the range of considerations relevant to the moral analysis that underlies Green’s legal prescriptions and provide an added dimension to the normative assessment of popular opinion.