Vincent
Geeraets: The Limits of Justifying Punishment
Retributive theories not only
explain why punishment should be administered, but often there is also a
commitment to a retributive standard for the degree of punishment. In this paper, I first show that
several variations are possible with regard to this standard. Next, I argue
that neither of these standards can be specified. In fact, generally speaking
there can be little clarity when we discuss in abstraction the degree of
punishment. Hence, we should refrain from using these abstract standards and
opt for another kind of investigation in order to further study questions
concerning the degree of punishment. In the end of the paper, I suggest there
is a better way of dealing with these persistent and disturbing questions concerning
the various systems of criminal law.