Legal Profession

Merciful Judgments and Contemporary Society Legal Problems, Legal Possibilities

By Austin Sarat
Cambridge University Press February 2012

Specifications

ISBN-13
9781107008434
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication
February 2012
Format
Hardback , 322 pages
Jurisdiction
International ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

Merciful Judgments and Contemporary Society: Legal Problems, Legal Possibilities explores the tension between law's need for and dependence on merciful judgments and suspicions that regularly accompany them. Rather than focusing primarily on definitional questions or the longstanding debate about the moral worth and importance of mercy, this book focuses on mercy as a part of, and problem for, law. This book is a product of the University of Alabama School of Law symposia series on 'Law, Knowledge and Imagination'. It explores the ways law is known and imagined in a diverse array of disciplines, including political science, history, cultural studies, philosophy and science. In addition, books produced through the Alabama symposia explore various conjunctions of law, knowledge and imagination as they play out in debates about theory and policy and speak to venerable questions as well as contemporary issues.

• Explores the tension between law's need for and dependence on merciful judgments and suspicions that regularly accompany them

• This book is a result of the University of Alabama School of Law symposia series on 'Law, Knowledge and Imagination'

• Rather than focusing primarily on definitional questions or the longstanding debate about the moral worth and importance of mercy, this book focuses on mercy as a part of, and problem for, law

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
ix
Contributors
xi
When Can or Should Legal Judgment Be Merciful? An Introduction
Austin Sarat
1
1             The Place of Mercy in Legal Discourse
Robert A. Ferguson
19
Commentary on Chapter 1: Response to “The Place of Mercy in Legal Discourse”
James Leonard
83
2             Mercy, Crime Control, and Moral Credibility
Paul H. Robinson
99
Commentary on Chapter 2: Thoughts on Mercy and Self-Examination
William S. Brewbaker III
124
3             Defending a Role for Mercy in a Criminal Justice System
Jim Staihar and Stephen Macedo
138
Commentary on Chapter 3: Commentary on “Defending a Role for Mercy in a Criminal Justice System”
Pamela Bucy Pierson
195
4             Actions of Mercy
Alice Ristroph
205
Commentary on Chapter 4: Reflections on “Actions of Mercy”
Steven H. Hobbs
234
5             A Feminist View of Mercy, Judgment, and the “Exception” in the Context of Transitional Justice
Susan H. Williams
247
Commentary on Chapter 5: The Interpretative Process: Feminist Reconstructions
Timothy Hoff
291
Index
305

About the Author

Austin Sarat
Amherst College, Massachusetts

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