Punishment

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511657535.021

20 - Punishment

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2010

Edited by

Matthew Anderson and

Austin Sarat: Affiliation:
Amherst College, Massachusetts
Matthew Anderson: Affiliation:
University of New England, Maine
Cathrine O. Frank: Affiliation:
University of New England, Maine

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Summary

At first glance, it is not clear what precisely the humanities have to offer to a discussion of punishment. Punishment, as the dictionary tells us, is the infliction of pain on account of a wrong. The power to determine what acts are punishable and the corresponding power to inflict pain upon offenders has been, since at least the late Middle Ages in the West, so closely bound up with conceptions of sovereignty and jurisdiction that, along with the power to levy war, a monopoly on punishment is generally considered the defining feature of the modern state. As such, punishment, and the discussions attendant to its procedures, justifications, constitutional limitations, and application have primarily, although certainly not exclusively, resided within the disciplinary domain of law and lawyers.

Law's disciplinary claim on punishment, if never complete, has been substantial within the Western tradition since the Middle Ages. Although this observation may be rather obvious, it is not inevitable that the discipline of law take pride of place in shaping a given culture's discourses and practices of punishment. For example, juridical discussions concerning the principles and application of punishment are surprisingly rare in ancient Roman law, even though the Roman Empire, especially in its late stages, showed a remarkable preoccupation with using punishment to establish and to police the boundaries of social rank.

Type: Chapter
Information: Law and the Humanities
An Introduction
, pp. 517 - 530

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511657535.021 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2009

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