Strict Liability and the Paradoxes of Proportionality

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-7-2017

Abstract

This essay explores the case against strict liability offenses as part of the more general debate about proportional punishment. This debate takes on a very different look in light of a formal result derived by the authors elsewhere, that is briefly summarized and whose implications are pursued here. Traditional objections that consequentialists have mounted against the deontologists’/retributivists’ defense of proportionality fall by the wayside, but a new threat to the proportionality requirement replaces it: the ease with which any such requirement can be circumvented.

Keywords

strict liability, criminal law, proportionality, decision theory, social choice

Publication Title

Criminal Law and Philosophy

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