Law in Contemporary Society

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JustinColannino-SecondPaper 24 - 09 May 2008 - Main.JustinColannino
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Just Desert: Why We Deserve a Right Against Disproportionate Punishment

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 These models illustrate a problem with how criminal laws are made. Social events easily shift the harshness of penalties upwards, but there is little at work to mobilize the population to diminish penalties.

Proportionality in sentencing, using weak or limited retributivism as a constitutional cap on penalties.

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<		One of the purposes of our constitution is to protect the minorities rights against the will of the majority.
  • You meant "minority's." Even "minorities'" would have been wrong with a definite article before it. Proofreading missed.
Thus, a constitutional guarantee that punishment and pain inflicted by the government must not be disproportionate to the criminal offense will be able to protect citizens from punishments easily ratcheted up by social events, but not easily ratcheted down.
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>		One of the purposes of our constitution is to protect the minority's rights against the will of the majority. Thus, a constitutional guarantee that punishment and pain inflicted by the government must not be disproportionate to the criminal offense will be able to protect citizens from punishments easily ratcheted up by social events, but not easily ratcheted down.
 Proportionality is at once a difficult and easy concept to define. Proportionality feels intuitive. We would all agree that a two-hundred dollar fine for murder is too lenient or that a sentence of five years for jaywalking is disproportionate to the point where it offends our sense of justice. However, when we attempt to circumscribe exactly what proportional means definition alludes us.

Revision 24r24 - 09 May 2008 - 02:42:27 - JustinColannino
Revision 23r23 - 09 May 2008 - 01:19:50 - AdamCarlis
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