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The article argues that though it is a well established in criminal law that liability may arise from omission as well as commission, it is often problematical just what circumstances give rise to such liability. The Roman law, for example, penalized homicide brought about by means of willful starvation, or by failure to complete a surgical operation. The latter problem, incidentally, reappears frequently in the history of criminal law. Logically it would seem proper to treat causation first, for people can ask whether an omission was criminal or not only when they are sure that the event was causally connected with the inactivity.