Punishment and freedom : a liberal theory of penal justice

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Punishment and freedom : a liberal theory of penal justice

Alan Brudner

(Oxford monographs on criminal law and criminal justice)

Oxford University Press, 2012

  • : pbk

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Note

"First published 2009"--T.p. verso

Bibliography: p. [329]-332

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book sets out a new understanding of the penal law of a liberal legal order. The prevalent view today is that the penal law is best understood from the standpoint of a moral theory concerning when it is fair to blame and censure an individual character for engaging in proscribed conduct. By contrast, this book argues that the penal law is best understood by a political and constitutional theory about when it is permissible for the state to restrain and confine a free agent. The book's thesis is that penal action by public officials is permissible force rather than wrongful violence only if it could be accepted by the agent as being consistent with its freedom. There are, however, different conceptions of freedom, and each informs a theoretical paradigm of penal justice generating distinctive constraints on state coercion. Although this plurality of paradigms creates an appearance of fragmentation and contradiction in the law, the author argues that the penal law forms a complex whole uniting the constraints on punishment flowing from each paradigm.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • 1. Punishment
  • 2. Culpable Mind
  • 3. Culpable Action
  • 4. Responsibility for Harm
  • 5. Liability for Public Welfare Offences
  • 6. Justification
  • 7. Excuse
  • 8. Detention After Acquittal
  • 9. The Unity of the Penal Law
  • Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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Details

  • NCID
    BB09500466
  • ISBN
    • 9780199652334
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    New York
  • Pages/Volumes
    xix, 336 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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