4 Criminal Conspiracy

Definition: an agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act (or a lawful act by unlawful means) — the agreement itself is the crime, regardless whether anything further is done. Conspiracy's distinctive logic (why agreement alone is criminal): the combination multiplies danger (mutual confidence, division of labour, endurance); the plan's formation is the criminal will's institutionalization.Elements: (i) plurality (two or more — the single "conspirator" is a contradiction; the unilateral- conspiracy doctrines of US law being the famous deviation); (ii) agreement (the mens: intention to agree + intention that the offence be committed — no need of overt act in the common-law pure form; civil-law systems typically requiring an overt step); (iii) the unlawful object (or lawful object by unlawful means).** doctrines to know:**1. Overt act requirement: many systems (US federal law; the Code's abetment-conspiracy structure) require at least one step in execution;2. The conspiratorial continuum: each conspirator liable for the conspirators' foreseeable crimes in furtherance of the common design (the Pinkerton doctrine's controversial family) — vicarious criminality's frontier;3. Withdrawal/abandonment as conspiracy's defence (renunciation communicated in time to prevent the crime — hard, since the agreement's mere existence already completed the offence in common law; modern codes allowing renunciation's affirmative defence);4. Conspiracy vs. mere association: social proximity, kinship or shared ideology do not make conspiracy — the…