UCL Laws PhD student Levin Güver wins ASLP Essay Competition

The Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy (ASLP) Essay Competition aims to encourage original research and writing in legal theory and philosophy of law, and is open to early career scholars around the world.

Levin’s winning essay, titled ‘Untangling the Gordian Knot of Motive’, provides a novel contribution to an old debate concerning motive’s relevance to criminal liability. The standard view in criminal law is that while the defendant’s good or bad motives may factor in at the punishment stage, they are irrelevant to her criminal liability. Not so, argues Levin. Instead, he tries to show that once we get a clear handle on the nature of motives, it becomes very hard to deny their relevance to criminal liability. 

The winning essay has been invited to be submitted to The Journal of Legal Theory, where it is currently under review. Levin commented: "I am delighted and honoured that the first chapter of my dissertation is getting such positive resonance! A special thank you to my mentors and supervisors, whose feedback has been – and continues to be – absolutely integral in shaping this project."

Levin is currently a second-year PhD student at UCL Laws, where he is comprising a dissertation on the action-theoretic foundations of criminal law. He is jointly supervised by Dr Mark Dsouza, Professor Kevin Toh (UCL Laws) and Professor John Hyman (UCL Philosophy).