A System of Excuses: How Criminal Law's Excuse Defenses Do, and Don't, Work Together to Exculpate Blameless (And Only Blameless) Offenders

This Article looks at excuses as a group. Do excuses represent a coherent conceptual category? Do they have common purposes and internal structures? If so, what, if anything, can be learned from looking at excuses as a group? (As used here, the term "excuses" is meant to refer to general defenses of excuse and does not include the many doctrines of mitigation.)