A Theory of Criminal Law, Volume 1

Seong Jo Ahn is currently a full professor of Criminal law & Procedure at Jeju National University Law School, and he was a visiting scholar at the Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford, UK, from 2023 to 2024.
He has published four major works related to criminal law, the subtitles of which clearly show his research interests. The titles of the four volumes are as follows: ‘Modern Criminal Law Vol. 1: Theory and Method,’ ‘Modern Criminal Law Vol. 2: Criminal Law and Evolutionary Theory,’ ‘Modern Criminal Law Vol. 3: Reviewing Freedom and Modernity in Criminal Law,’ and ‘Modern Criminal Law Vol. 4: Essays on Criminal Law.’
From 2023 to 2025, he presented on the theme ‘Reinterpreting the principle of nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege from a Rawlsian Perspective’ at the Criminal Law Discussion Group at the University of Oxford, and on the topic ‘Putative Defence: A Comparative Study’ at the Seminar of the Institute of European and Comparative Law (IECL). He also presented on Mistaken Self-Defence at the Anglo-German Criminal Law Seminar, which was also held at the University of Oxford.
In 2024 and 2025, he also addressed the philosophical grounds of criminal law’s foremost principles at the world IVR conference and gave presentations at international conferences held in Beijing, China, on topics including ‘A Comparative Study on the Treatment of Putative Defence’ and ‘Criminal Liability of Electronic Persons.’
His works in 2025 include ‘Mistakes in Criminal Law: Exploring Mistake of Law and Mistake of Fact.’