XClose

UCL Faculty of Laws

Home
Menu

UCL Laws PhD student Levin Güver wins ASLP Essay Competition

27 March 2024

Levin was named the winner of the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy Essay Competition 2023 for his paper ‘Untangling the Gordian Knot of Motive’.

Levin Guever

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).

Update: 17/07/2024

In July, a shorter version of Levin's essay was named the winner of the Lex Academic SIFA/Argumenta Prize for best essay in action theory and ethics. This version, titled 'The Unity of Motive', explores in-depth the nature of motive and its relation to adjacent mental states such as intentions, desires, and beliefs. Levin's winning essay has since been published in the newest issue of the philosophy journal Argumenta