The Theoretical Concept of Moral Luck

The concept of moral luck stems from the inconsistency between the idea of responsibility and our own approach to judging others. Whereas our society holds the view that people should only be found culpable for actions within their control, we end up holding them to account for actions beyond their control.[1]Great scholars such as Aristotle have contributed to the debate byasserting that a person can only be criminally responsible if holding them morally accountable is possible.[2] The aim of this paper, therefore, is to discuss the concept of moral luck including its effect on criminal responsibility. In the last section, we will analyze the relevance of theconcept in the current criminal law practice.

Theoretical concept of moral luck In evaluating the theoretical concept of moral luck, it is imperativefirst toanalyze the idea behind it.The conceptis premised on the question of whether luck impacts moral responsibility.It describes a circumstance in which blame or praise is heaped on a person for an action even if it is evident that theylacked control over it at the time.[3]The argument advanced by Nagel[4] is that one cannot be held morally responsible for an act they had no control over;for that reason, ‘a clear absence of control, produced by involuntary movement, physical force, or ignorance of the circumstances, excuses what is done from moral judgment

According to Williams, our moral judgments have a bearing on the phenomenon of moral luck, and the same is manifestedthroughvariousways,resultant luck being the first.[1] The argument by William is that if resultant luck exists, then, the lucky result determines to a certain extent the agent’s degree of moral culpability. For instance, if we believe that a person who commits murder is more culpable than a party who attemptsit, then, we can conclude that a resultant luck from an uncontrollable event caused such failure. The second is circumstantial luck,[2]which is essentially attributable to the events of our surrounding in such a way that a person is judgedbased on the circumstances that limit his choices and opportunities. Nigel asserts that if we judge people by what they failed to do as opposed to what they would have done had the circumstances been different, then, all moral judgments thereof are tainted by luck.

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