Cesare Beccaria’s slim 1764 volume On Crimes and Punishments influenced policy developments worldwide and over decades, if not centuries, after its publication. For those who turn to Beccaria’s work today, the encounter is shaped by that knowledge. Appreciative of On Crimes and Punishments' dual nature as historical document and repository of ideas, the contributions in this collection address different aspects of the criminal justice theory Beccaria offered his readers and face up to methodological questions raised by meeting a historical text of this kind – unsystematic and by modern standards often under-argued – with modern scholarly conventions in mind. Contributions in the first part of the book engage with Beccaria’s political theory of criminal justice through the lenses of political and penal philosophy, considering how Beccaria’s blending of social-contractarian foundations and proto-utilitarian policy analysis interlinks with the concrete set of criminal justice practices Beccaria presents as justified. This leads on to the second part where contributors approach Beccaria’s ideas with present-day reforms and developments in mind. Many of his policy proposals and arguments remain significant from our contemporary perspective, their limitations and omissions proving as instructive for the contemporary scholar as their more prescient elements. The third part offers those looking at Beccaria’s work today a glimpse into the practical difficulties facing the firebrand author turned public servant during his long career in the Habsburg-Lombardian administration. It puts his work into the broader context of pathways to criminal justice reform in northern Italy, Habsburgian Lombardy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Beccaria’s day.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Antje du Bois-Pedain (University of Cambridge, UK) and Shachar Eldar (Ono Academic College, Israel) PART I LOCATING BECCARIA’S CONTRIBUTION 1. Beccaria’s Political Theory of Criminal Justice Lorenzo Zucca (King’s College London, UK) 2. Reconstructing Beccaria's Social Contract Matt Matravers (University of York, UK) 3. Beccaria’s Contractarian Criminal Law: Jurisdiction, Punishments and Rewards RA Duff and S E Marshall (both of University of Stirling, UK) 4 Crime, Punishment and the Social Contract: Towards the Constitutionalisation of Criminal Law Antje du Bois-Pedain (University of Cambridge, UK) 5. Beccaria, Treason and the Social Contract Anat Scolnicov (Winchester University, UK) 6. Beccaria’s Secular Metaphysics: Pain, Time, and State Authority Shai Lavi (Tel Aviv University, Israel) 7. Public Institutions Without Public Offices: Beccaria’s Use of Political Theory in the Reform of Criminal Justice Malcolm Thorburn (University of Toronto, Canada) 8: Realism and the Rational Administration of the Law in Beccaria Vincent Chiao (University of Richmond, Canada) PART II LOCATING BECCARIA IN PRESENT-DAY DISCOURSES ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE 9. Beccaria Now: (Re)reading 'On Crimes and Punishments' Paul Roberts (University of Nottingham, UK) 10. Should Murder Be More Difficult to Prove than Theft? Beccaria and Differential Standards of Proof Amit Pundik (Tel Aviv University, Israel) 11. Cesare Beccaria’s Integrative Deterrence Approach Mordechai Kremnitzer (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) and Adi Gal (Yale Law School, USA) 12. Human Rights and Criminal Law: From Beccaria’s 'On Crimes and Punishments' to Modern Criminal Law Miriam Gur-Arye (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) 13. Beccaria on the Human Rights Committee? An Excursus on the Parameters of Human Rights and Penology Leslie Sebba and Rachela Er'el (both of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) PART III LOCATING BECCARIA IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CRIMINAL JUSTICE 14. Criminal Justice Reform in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Habsburgian Lombardy and Tuscany: Beccaria’s Policy Memoranda in Context Antje du Bois-Pedain (University of Cambridge, UK) Appendix 1: Brief observations on the General Code on Crimes and Punishments as concerned with policy offences [1787] by Cesare Beccaria (translated by J R Spencer) Appendix 2: Opinion of the Undersigned Members of the Committee Charged with the Reform of the Criminal System in Austrian Lombardy for Matters Pertaining to Capital Punishment' [1792] by Gallarati Scotti, Beccaria Bonesana and Risi (translated by Aaron Thomas and Jeremy Parzen; reprinted by permission of Toronto University Press)