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Brooks on the British Idealists' Theory of Punishment

By Lawrence Solum

Thom Brooks (Newcastle University - Newcastle Law School) has posted Punishment and British Idealism on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In this essay, I shall not offer a philosophical history of the various debates between these different rival camps on punishment. Instead, my aim is to introduce the reader to one important attempt to contribute to moving the debate forward offered by the British Idealists. The British Idealists grew to prominence during the late 19th Century and their influence began to wane since the outbreak of the First World War. The movement produced several important figures, such as Bernard Bosanquet, F. H. Bradley, and T. H. Green. While there are many significant differences between these and other Idealists, there is also significant overlap. One such overlap is an attempt to view theories of punishment from a new perspective, namely, as part of a single, coherent and unified theory of punishment rather than rival camps opposed to unification.

I shall begin by first discussing the legacy of Kant?s and Hegel?s writings on the British Idealist view of punishment. I will then briefly discuss the problems they encountered with justifying punishment before outlining their unified theory of punishment. While the work of British Idealists may be too often overlooked today, my hope is that fleshing out certain primary motivating features of their theory of punishment might solicit greater interest from a wider audience.

Highly recommended.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).