Cesare Beccaria : The Genius of 'On Crimes and Punishments'

Targeted to highlight matters of both universal and current relevance - will be of considerable interest to anyone wishing to trace the development of the rights of individuals charged with or convicted of crimes, and of the importance of fairness, proportionality, decency and similar matters which may be at-risk in the wrong hands.

In eighteenth century continental Europe penal Law was barbaric. Gallows were a regular feature of the landscape, branding and mutilation common and there existed the ghastly spectacle of men being broken on the wheel. To make matters worse, people were often tortured or put to death (sometimes both) for minor crimes and often without any trial at all. Like a bombshell a book entitled On Crimes and Punishments exploded onto the scene in 1764 with shattering effect. Its author was a young nobleman named Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794). A central message of that—now classic—work was that such punishments belonged to 'a war of nations against their citizens' and should be abolished. It was a cri de coeur for thorough reform of the Law affecting punishments and it swept across the continent of Europe like wildfire, being adopted by one ruler after another. It even crossed the Atlantic to the new United States of America into the hands of President Thomas Jefferson. In a wonderful sentence which concludes Beccaria's book, he sums up matters as follows: " In order that every punishment may not be an act of violence, committed by one man or by many against a single individual, it ought to be above all things public, speedy, necessary, the least possible in the given circumstances, proportioned to its crime (and) dictated by the Laws." Civilising penal Law remains a topical issue but it began with Cesare Beccaria.

In 18th-century continental Europe, penal law and what passed for justice were barbaric: gallows were a regular feature of the landscape, branding and mutilation were common, and there existed the ghastly spectacle of people being broken on the wheel. To make matters worse, offenders were often tortured or put to death for quite minor crimes and often without any semblance of a proper trial. Like a bombshell, a book entitled On Crimes and Punishments exploded onto the scene in 1764 with shattering effect. Its author was a young man from a privileged background, named Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794). A central message of that now classic work was that such punishments belonged to 'a war of nations against their citizens' and should be abolished. It was a cri de coeur for thorough reform of the law affecting penal law and punishments, and it swept across the continent of Europe like wildfire, being adopted by one ruler after another. It even crossed the Atlantic to the new United States, into the hands of President Thomas Jefferson. Civilized penal law remains a highly topical issue, and this book examines where it all began, with the influence of Cesare Beccaria. British legal biographer Hostettler examines the life and achievements of Italian Count Cesare Bonesana, Marquis of Beccaria (1738-94), whose small 1764 book Dei Delitti e delle Pene was part of his campaign to challenge the core of judicial thinking from its reliance on vengeance and long-standing customs, and replace it with a scientific approach based on reason and humanity. It became the first theory of penal law, and changed thinking so quickly and so thoroughly that even scholars today do not think of the upheavals in penal thought, the legal system, and society generally that resulted