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Associate Professor Arlie Loughnan

BA (Hons) LLB (Hons) (Sydney) LLM (NYU) PhD (Lond)
Research Fellow

F10 - Law School (Camperdown)
The University of Sydney

Telephone +61 2 9351 0246
Fax +61 2 9351 0200

Website Papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

Biographical details

Dr Arlie Loughnan is ARC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Law Faculty, University of Sydney. Her research project, Responsibility in Criminal Law (No. DE130100418) examines criminal responsibility from a socio-historical perspective, setting developments in the law against extra-legal developments in responsibility norms and practices.

Arlie joined the Faculty in 2007. She is a graduate of the University of Sydney, New York University Law School and the London School of Economics.

Arlie's research concerns criminal law and the criminal justice system, with a focus on the relationship between legal doctrines, practices, institutions and knowledge. Her particular interests are constructions of criminal responsibility and non-responsibility, the interaction of legal and expert medical knowledges and the historical development of the criminal law.

Arlie is the author of Manifest Madness: Mental Incapacity in Criminal Law (OUP, 2012). This book examines the terrain of mental incapacity in criminal law, tracing overlapping and interlocking legal doctrines, current and past practices of evidence and proof, and medical and social understanding of mental order and incapacity. Bringing together previously disparate discussions from law, history, psychology, and philosophy, it analyses the distinct character of mental incapacity revealed by this interdisciplinary approach – manifest madness'.

Arlie is a Co-Editor of Sydney Law Review (with Dr Shae McCrystal) (since 2013). She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of SOLON Law, Crime and History. She was Co-Editor of the Institute of Criminology's journal, Current Issues in Criminal Justice (with Dr Murray Lee) (2011-2014).

Arlie was the Academic Member of the NSW Law Society's Criminal Law Committee (2009-2013), and, in 2010-11, she was the Academic Member of the NSW Bar's Professional Conduct Committee (No. 2) (with Dr R. Shackel). In 2010, Arlie served as a member of the Panel of Expert Advisors for the NSW Law Reform Commission reference on Complicity.

Arlie has held Visiting Fellowships at Cambridge University (2015), the University of Melbourne (2014), University College London (2013), the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (2013) and London School of Economics (2010).

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Research interests

  • Criminal law and theory
  • Mental incapacity
  • Legal history
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Teaching and supervision

  • Criminal Law
  • Advanced Criminal Law
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Current research students

Project title Research student
Reading Emotion: Queer Injury, Intimacy, and Identity in Pro-LGBTI Cases Sen SUNIL RAJ
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Selected grants

2013

  • Responsibility in Criminal Law; Loughnan A; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA).
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Selected publications & creative works

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Books

  • Anthony, T., Crofts, P., Crofts, T., Gray, S., Loughnan, A., Naylor, B. (2013). Waller & Williams Criminal Law Text and Cases - 12th Edition. Australia: LexisNexis.
  • Loughnan, A. (2012). Manifest Madness: Mental Incapacity in Criminal Law. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Edited Books

  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2015). Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

Book Chapters

  • Loughnan, A. (2017). 'Dangerousness', 'Abnormality', and the Detention of the Forensic Mentally Ill (Forthcoming). In Christopher Michaelsen (Eds.), Comparative Perspectives on the Theory and Practice of Preventive Detention. United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.
  • Loughnan, A. (2017). Depression and Criminal Law and Process (Forthcoming). In C. Foster, J. Herring (Eds.), Depression: Law and Ethics. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
  • Loughnan, A. (2017). Rethinking M'Naughten (Forthcoming). In Henry Mares, Ian Williams, Phil Handler (Eds.), Landmark Cases in Criminal Law. United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.
  • Loughnan, A. (2017). Teaching and learning criminal law 'in context': Taking 'context' seriously. In Kris Gledhill, Ben Livings (Eds.), The Teaching of Criminal Law: The pedagogical imperatives, (pp. 151-161). United Kingdom: Routledge.
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Historicizing Criminal Responsibility. In Chad Flanders, Zachary Hoskins (Eds.), The New Philosophy of Criminal Law, (pp. 133-151). London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
  • Burns, K., Loughnan, A., Lunney, M., Willis, S. (2015). Australia: a land of plenty (of legislative regimes). In Matthew Dyson (Eds.), Comparing Tort and Crime: Learning from across and within Legal Systems, (pp. 367-415). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). From Carpetbag to Crucible: Reconceptualising Diminished Responsibility Manslaughter. In Ben Livings, Alan Reed, Nicola Wake (Eds.), Mental Condition Defences and the Criminal Justice System: Perspectives from Law and Medicine, (pp. 339-364). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). In Accordance with Modern Notions: Criminal Responsibility at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. In Thomas Crofts, Arlie Loughnan (Eds.), Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia, (pp. 157-175). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2015). Introduction: Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia. In Thomas Crofts, Arlie Loughnan (Eds.), Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia, (pp. 1-9). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • Loughnan, A., Wake, N. (2014). Of Blurred Boundaries and Prior Fault: Insanity, Automatism and Intoxication. In Alan Reed, Michael Bohlander, Nicola Wake, Emma Smith (Eds.), General Defences in Criminal Law: Domestic and Comparative Perspectives, (pp. 113-132). Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
  • Loughnan, A., Selchow, S. (2013). Preventive Detention Beyond the Law:The Need to Ask Socio-Political Questions. In Patrick Keyzer (Eds.), Preventive Detention: Asking the Fundamental Questions, (pp. 261-285). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Intersentia Publishing Ltd.
  • Loughnan, A. (2013). The Expertise of Non-Experts: Knowledges of Intoxication in Criminal Law. In J. Herring, C. Regan, D. Weinberg and P. Withington (Eds.), Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures of Drugs and and Alcohol, (pp. 52-68). Bassingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Journals

  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Asking (Different) Responsibility Questions: Responsibility and Non-Responsibility in Criminal Law. Bergen Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 4(1), 24-46. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Between fairness and "dangerousness": reforming the law on unfitness to plead. Criminal Law Review, 2016 (7), 451-466.
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Understanding the Law on Intoxicated Offending: Principle, Pragmatism and Legal Culture (Forthcoming). Journal of International and Comparative Law, 3(2).
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). "Society Owes Them Much": Veteran Defendants and Criminal Responsibility in Australia in the Twentieth Century. Critical Analysis of Law, 2(1), 106-134. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A., McCrystal, S. (2015). Before the High Court: History and Counter-History: 25 Years of Writing for the High Court. Sydney Law Review, 37(4), 567-593.
  • Loughnan, A., Ward, T. (2014). Emergent Authority and Expert Knowledge: Psychiatry and Criminal Responsibilty in the UK. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 37(1), 25-36. [More Information]
  • Oosterhuis, H., Loughnan, A. (2014). Introduction - Madness and crime: Historical perspectives on forensic psychiatry. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 37(1), 1-16. [More Information]
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2014). Provocation, NSW Style: Reform of the Defence of Provocation in NSW. Criminal Law Review, 2014 (2), 109-125.
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2013). Provocation: The good, the bad and the ugly. Criminal Law Journal, 37(1), 23-37.
  • Loughnan, A. (2013). Reading the Old Bailey Proceedings. Australia and New Zealand Law and History E-Journal, 2013, 1-14.
  • Loughnan, A. (2013). Reforming the Criminal Law on Mental Incapacity. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 25(2), 703-710.
  • Buchanan, P., Loughnan, A., Grunstein, R. (2012). Inappropriate Situational Sleepiness and the Law. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 7(2), 353-363. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2012). Mental Incapacity Doctrines in Criminal Law. New Criminal Law Review, 15(1), 1-31. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2012). The 'Strange' Case of the Infanticide Doctrine. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 32(4), 685-711. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2011). 'In a Kind of Mad Way': A Historical Perspective on Evidence and Proof of Mental Incapacity. Melbourne University Law Review, 35(3), 1049-1070.
  • Loughnan, A. (2010). Drink Spiking and Rock Throwing: The Creation and Construction of Criminal Offences in the Current Era. Alternative Law Journal, 35(1), 18-21.
  • Loughnan, A. (2010). Understanding the Criminal Trial: A Response to HL Ho. Sydney Law Review, 32(3), 533-547.
  • Loughnan, A. (2009). The Legislation We Had to Have? The Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 (NSW). Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 20(3), 457-465.
  • Loughnan, A., Shackel, R. (2009). The Travails of Postgraduate Research in Law. Legal Education Review, 19(1), 99-132.
  • Loughnan, A. (2007). 'Manifest Madness': Towards A New Understanding of the Insanity Defence. The Modern Law Review, 70(3), 379-401.
  • Loughnan, A. (2005). Lay Truth: The Role of Lay Understandings of Mental Illness in Mental Incapacity Defences. Criminal Justice Matters, 12(2005), 00-00.

Conferences

  • Loughnan, A. (2016). The Significance of Criminal Responsibility. 5th National University of Singapore (NUS)-Sydney Law Symposium 2016: Law, Values and Reason, Singapore: Presentation.
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). Rethinking M'Naughten. Landmark Cases in Criminal Law Conference 2015: Cambridge University, Cambridge, England: Presentation.
  • Loughnan, A. (2014). 'Society owes them much': 'Veteran Defendants' and Criminal Responsibility in Australia in the Twentieth Century. New Historical Jurisprudence and Historical Analysis of Law Workshop 2014: Critical Analysis of Law (CAL), Toronto, ON, Canada: Presentation.
  • Loughnan, A. (2014). The Future of the Law of Homicide: The Role of Diminished Responsibility Manslaughter. Third Annual Robina Conference 2014: The Future of Criminal Law, Minneapolis, MN: Robina Institute of Criminal Law & Criminal Justice. [More Information]

Magazine / Newspaper Articles

  • Loughnan, A. (2016). The drugs made me do it: can prescription side-effects be an excuse for crime? The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). Burdens of war service create a strong case for a veterans' court. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). Gerard Baden-Clay and the high bar for prosecution. The Drum. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). How the insanity defence against a murder charge works. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2014). Genes made me do it: genetics, responsibility and criminal law. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2012). Anders Breivik is guilty: the fine line between bad and mad. The Conversation. [More Information]

Other

  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2012), Submission No. 29: Inquiry into Partial Defence of Provocation. [More Information]
  • Hamer, D., Anthony, T., Biber, K., Crofts, P., Dennis, I., Douglas, H., Eburn, M., Edmond, G., Farrar, S., Hopkins, A., Kumar, M., Loughnan, A., Mitchell, T., et al (2012), Submission on Exposure Draft: Evidence Amendment (Evidence of Silence) Bill 2012.

Research Reports

  • Loughnan, A. (2013). A Discussion Paper considering the operation of Part 8A of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA), July 2013, (pp. 1 - 147). Adelaide, Australia: Attorney-General's Department, Government of South Australia.

2017

  • Loughnan, A. (2017). 'Dangerousness', 'Abnormality', and the Detention of the Forensic Mentally Ill (Forthcoming). In Christopher Michaelsen (Eds.), Comparative Perspectives on the Theory and Practice of Preventive Detention. United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.
  • Loughnan, A. (2017). Depression and Criminal Law and Process (Forthcoming). In C. Foster, J. Herring (Eds.), Depression: Law and Ethics. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
  • Loughnan, A. (2017). Rethinking M'Naughten (Forthcoming). In Henry Mares, Ian Williams, Phil Handler (Eds.), Landmark Cases in Criminal Law. United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.
  • Loughnan, A. (2017). Teaching and learning criminal law 'in context': Taking 'context' seriously. In Kris Gledhill, Ben Livings (Eds.), The Teaching of Criminal Law: The pedagogical imperatives, (pp. 151-161). United Kingdom: Routledge.

2016

  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Asking (Different) Responsibility Questions: Responsibility and Non-Responsibility in Criminal Law. Bergen Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 4(1), 24-46. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Between fairness and "dangerousness": reforming the law on unfitness to plead. Criminal Law Review, 2016 (7), 451-466.
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Historicizing Criminal Responsibility. In Chad Flanders, Zachary Hoskins (Eds.), The New Philosophy of Criminal Law, (pp. 133-151). London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). The drugs made me do it: can prescription side-effects be an excuse for crime? The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). The Significance of Criminal Responsibility. 5th National University of Singapore (NUS)-Sydney Law Symposium 2016: Law, Values and Reason, Singapore: Presentation.
  • Loughnan, A. (2016). Understanding the Law on Intoxicated Offending: Principle, Pragmatism and Legal Culture (Forthcoming). Journal of International and Comparative Law, 3(2).

2015

  • Loughnan, A. (2015). "Society Owes Them Much": Veteran Defendants and Criminal Responsibility in Australia in the Twentieth Century. Critical Analysis of Law, 2(1), 106-134. [More Information]
  • Burns, K., Loughnan, A., Lunney, M., Willis, S. (2015). Australia: a land of plenty (of legislative regimes). In Matthew Dyson (Eds.), Comparing Tort and Crime: Learning from across and within Legal Systems, (pp. 367-415). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A., McCrystal, S. (2015). Before the High Court: History and Counter-History: 25 Years of Writing for the High Court. Sydney Law Review, 37(4), 567-593.
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). Burdens of war service create a strong case for a veterans' court. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2015). Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). From Carpetbag to Crucible: Reconceptualising Diminished Responsibility Manslaughter. In Ben Livings, Alan Reed, Nicola Wake (Eds.), Mental Condition Defences and the Criminal Justice System: Perspectives from Law and Medicine, (pp. 339-364). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). Gerard Baden-Clay and the high bar for prosecution. The Drum. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). How the insanity defence against a murder charge works. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). In Accordance with Modern Notions: Criminal Responsibility at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. In Thomas Crofts, Arlie Loughnan (Eds.), Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia, (pp. 157-175). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2015). Introduction: Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia. In Thomas Crofts, Arlie Loughnan (Eds.), Criminalisation and Criminal Responsibility in Australia, (pp. 1-9). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • Loughnan, A. (2015). Rethinking M'Naughten. Landmark Cases in Criminal Law Conference 2015: Cambridge University, Cambridge, England: Presentation.

2014

  • Loughnan, A. (2014). 'Society owes them much': 'Veteran Defendants' and Criminal Responsibility in Australia in the Twentieth Century. New Historical Jurisprudence and Historical Analysis of Law Workshop 2014: Critical Analysis of Law (CAL), Toronto, ON, Canada: Presentation.
  • Loughnan, A., Ward, T. (2014). Emergent Authority and Expert Knowledge: Psychiatry and Criminal Responsibilty in the UK. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 37(1), 25-36. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2014). Genes made me do it: genetics, responsibility and criminal law. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Oosterhuis, H., Loughnan, A. (2014). Introduction - Madness and crime: Historical perspectives on forensic psychiatry. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 37(1), 1-16. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A., Wake, N. (2014). Of Blurred Boundaries and Prior Fault: Insanity, Automatism and Intoxication. In Alan Reed, Michael Bohlander, Nicola Wake, Emma Smith (Eds.), General Defences in Criminal Law: Domestic and Comparative Perspectives, (pp. 113-132). Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2014). Provocation, NSW Style: Reform of the Defence of Provocation in NSW. Criminal Law Review, 2014 (2), 109-125.
  • Loughnan, A. (2014). The Future of the Law of Homicide: The Role of Diminished Responsibility Manslaughter. Third Annual Robina Conference 2014: The Future of Criminal Law, Minneapolis, MN: Robina Institute of Criminal Law & Criminal Justice. [More Information]

2013

  • Loughnan, A. (2013). A Discussion Paper considering the operation of Part 8A of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA), July 2013, (pp. 1 - 147). Adelaide, Australia: Attorney-General's Department, Government of South Australia.
  • Loughnan, A., Selchow, S. (2013). Preventive Detention Beyond the Law:The Need to Ask Socio-Political Questions. In Patrick Keyzer (Eds.), Preventive Detention: Asking the Fundamental Questions, (pp. 261-285). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Intersentia Publishing Ltd.
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2013). Provocation: The good, the bad and the ugly. Criminal Law Journal, 37(1), 23-37.
  • Loughnan, A. (2013). Reading the Old Bailey Proceedings. Australia and New Zealand Law and History E-Journal, 2013, 1-14.
  • Loughnan, A. (2013). Reforming the Criminal Law on Mental Incapacity. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 25(2), 703-710.
  • Loughnan, A. (2013). The Expertise of Non-Experts: Knowledges of Intoxication in Criminal Law. In J. Herring, C. Regan, D. Weinberg and P. Withington (Eds.), Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures of Drugs and and Alcohol, (pp. 52-68). Bassingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Anthony, T., Crofts, P., Crofts, T., Gray, S., Loughnan, A., Naylor, B. (2013). Waller & Williams Criminal Law Text and Cases - 12th Edition. Australia: LexisNexis.

2012

  • Loughnan, A. (2012). Anders Breivik is guilty: the fine line between bad and mad. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Buchanan, P., Loughnan, A., Grunstein, R. (2012). Inappropriate Situational Sleepiness and the Law. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 7(2), 353-363. [More Information]
  • Loughnan, A. (2012). Manifest Madness: Mental Incapacity in Criminal Law. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
  • Loughnan, A. (2012). Mental Incapacity Doctrines in Criminal Law. New Criminal Law Review, 15(1), 1-31. [More Information]
  • Crofts, T., Loughnan, A. (2012), Submission No. 29: Inquiry into Partial Defence of Provocation. [More Information]
  • Hamer, D., Anthony, T., Biber, K., Crofts, P., Dennis, I., Douglas, H., Eburn, M., Edmond, G., Farrar, S., Hopkins, A., Kumar, M., Loughnan, A., Mitchell, T., et al (2012), Submission on Exposure Draft: Evidence Amendment (Evidence of Silence) Bill 2012.
  • Loughnan, A. (2012). The 'Strange' Case of the Infanticide Doctrine. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 32(4), 685-711. [More Information]

2011

  • Loughnan, A. (2011). 'In a Kind of Mad Way': A Historical Perspective on Evidence and Proof of Mental Incapacity. Melbourne University Law Review, 35(3), 1049-1070.

2010

  • Loughnan, A. (2010). Drink Spiking and Rock Throwing: The Creation and Construction of Criminal Offences in the Current Era. Alternative Law Journal, 35(1), 18-21.
  • Loughnan, A. (2010). Understanding the Criminal Trial: A Response to HL Ho. Sydney Law Review, 32(3), 533-547.

2009

  • Loughnan, A. (2009). The Legislation We Had to Have? The Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 (NSW). Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 20(3), 457-465.
  • Loughnan, A., Shackel, R. (2009). The Travails of Postgraduate Research in Law. Legal Education Review, 19(1), 99-132.

2007

  • Loughnan, A. (2007). 'Manifest Madness': Towards A New Understanding of the Insanity Defence. The Modern Law Review, 70(3), 379-401.

2005

  • Loughnan, A. (2005). Lay Truth: The Role of Lay Understandings of Mental Illness in Mental Incapacity Defences. Criminal Justice Matters, 12(2005), 00-00.
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