Introduction. PART I: DIAGNOSING THE DEADLOCK 1. Two Faces of Retributivism PART II: BACK TO ORIGINS 2. Legal Retributivism 3. Ethical Retributivism PART III: REVIVAL 4. Punishment: Between Vindication and Healing 5. Restorative Retributivism 6. Punishment as Recognition PART IV: BEYOND IMPASSE 7. Seeking a Shared Ground: Between Loving Ethics and Legal Justice. Conclusion
Biography
Halil Cesur, Assistant Professor, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey.
“In this meticulously argued book, Halil Cesur makes a substantial contribution to the debate about retributive theories of punishment. Focusing on accounts which situate retributivism within a broad ethical framework, drawing on not only philosophy and criminal justice studies but moral psychology and psychoanalysis, Cesur offers a thoughtful assessment of the scope for reconciling legal and ethical retributivisms.”
Nicola Lacey, School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK.
"In this book, Cesur makes a sophisticated intervention into what can be considered an emergent field of critical retributivism studies. Through careful analysis of an impressive array of works in the philosophy of punishment and of criminal law, Legal and Ethical Retributivism unsettles common understandings about the role of punishment in modern society. By adopting a critical understanding of restoration as the main grounds for its approach, this book presents a compelling enquiry into retributive justice that raises important and productive questions about its purpose and limits."
Henrique Carvalho, Professor of Law, University of Warwick, UK.
“The ability of theorists of punishment to invent new and different kinds of retributive theory knows few limits, and this reflects its importance in rationalising and legitimising a central modern social, political and legal practice. Yet the prevalence of a practice does not equate with its effectiveness, far less its moral validity. In Legal and Ethical Retributivism, Halil Cesur identifies a central conflict in the modern theory of punishment and its main and governing problematic. Distinguishing a legal from an ethical account of retributivism and tracking this conflict across time and in views of the perpetrator, the victim and the state, Cesur shows how a consistent limitation affects state- and law-centred retributive approaches. A deeper ethical approach, immanent yet suppressed within legal retributivism, permits a vision of how modern societies might deal better with violation. With skill, vision and precision, Cesur’s ethical retributivism challenges punishment’s taken-for-granted nature, offering the vision of a restorative retributivism that foregrounds love, recognition and reconciliation.”
Alan Norrie, FBA, Professor of Law, University of Warwick.
