Does Kant Have a Theory of Punishment
Columbia Law Review, Vol. 87, p. 509, 1987
24 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2009
Date Written: 1987
Abstract
No doubt almost everyone would agree, although for different reasons, that any acceptable theory of punishment must make an important place for the values of justice, personal desert, respect for persons, and individual responsibility-it must, in short, make an important place for retributive values. This article pursues in some detail the grounds for the author’s current uneasiness with Kant's writings on crime and punishment. Hopefully, these grounds will raise issues of general interest that will be worthy of discussion and consideration which might possibly lead to the (at least partial) salvation of Kant's theory. If one selects carefully among the many remarks and insights that Kant has left us about crime and punishment, one might even be able to build an edifice from the bricks provided, but Kant himself most likely did not succeed in building such an edifice himself.
Keywords: Immanuel Kant, Theory of Punishment, Criminal Law
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