Duff on the Legitimacy of Punishment of Socially Deprived Offenders

Abstract

Duff offered an argument for the conclusion that just or legitimate punishment of socially deprived offenders in our unjust society is impossible. One of the claims in his argument is that our courts have the standing to blame an offender only if our polity has the right to do so since our courts are acting as the representatives of, or to use the exact phrases by Duff, ''in the name of'', or ''on behalf of'', the whole polity. In this paper I will challenge that claim. I will argue that the courts can be seen as acting, not on behalf of the whole polity, but only on behalf of a subset of its citizens, namely, the just citizens (i.e. the citizens who cannot be seen to have wronged the deprived offenders).

Injustice and the right to punish

“…In between these positions, Peter Chau () has suggested that an unjust state's authority to punish could be partially retained. He draws a distinction between a political community's right to hold offenders to account and the right of its courts to do so.…”

Lo moral y lo político en la legitimidad del castigo del excluido social: la discusión en cinco problemas

“…Su obra ha sido extensamente discutida en este aspecto: Cfr Matravers (2006)Holroyd (2010);Chau (2012); Mañalich (2016).…”