On the political legitimacy of state punishment. A critique of the traditional approach to the subject

Abstract

The paper criticizes the way in which academic discourses usually aim at discussing the political legitimacy of state punishment. It shows that the traditional language of the theories of punishment presupposes a static comprehension of the State. Such a comprehension is shown to be incompatible with a plausible theory of the State and the traditional theories of punishment lead to political conformism in spite of pretending to be politically critical.