Introduction to the Rationality of Punishment: The Foundational Theory of the Justification of Punishment

Author: Qiu Xinglong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-06-01
Features: This book is a highly academic monograph on the philosophy of punishment, written by the author after fifteen years of dedicated research. It employs logical deduction as its primary method, revealing that the retributive nature of punishment is the unity of social retribution, moral retribution, and legal retribution. The utilitarian justification of punishment lies in the unity of general prevention and individual prevention. It further elucidates the identity, difference, and opposition between the retributive and utilitarian aspects of punishment. Grounded in the dialectical relationship between the individual and society, objectivity and subjectivity, means and ends, it thoroughly argues that the legitimacy of punishment lies in the dialectical unity of retribution and utility. It proposes four fundamental principles to resolve the conflict between retribution and utility, and based on this premise, it conducts an in-depth dynamic analysis of the legitimacy of criminalization, sentencing, punishment allocation, and execution, thereby constructing a complete philosophical system of punishment centered around the harmony theory of penal rationality. The book introduces a series of entirely new concepts and principles, including the leniency of punishment, maximum efficiency, the theory of favoring the defendant, the paradox of the death penalty, the theory of sentencing with four equal positions, the theory of crime evaluation combining foundation and sequence, the theory of punishment allocation unifying equivalence and moderation, the theory of limited punishment, the theory of unjust laws are illegal, and the theory of unjust laws are also legal.