Blanket Retroactive Amelioration: A Remedy for Disproportionate Punishments

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

“Let the punishment be equal with the offence.” This maxim stands for the principle that punishment should be proportional to the offense. Dean Krent focuses his comments on legalistic retribution rather than on a form of retributivism where a “wrongdoer must not be punished more than she deserves” or where “a wrongdoer [is to] be punished to the fullest extent of his just deserts”. Naturally, while I agree with his accurate and perceptive assessment that the author was “on solid ground” with the consequentialist argument, I must respectfully disagree that blanket retroactive amelioration is contrary to this form of retributivism.

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