Punishment and Legitimacy: A Kantian Perspective

This project seeks to contribute to our understanding of the moral values that underpin procedural rights in criminal trials, with a particular focus on the sentencing process. It is common to explain the moral significance of legal processes in instrumental terms, as a reliable means of arriving at correct outcomes. This research will explore the adequacy of this explanation. Drawing on Kantian moral philosophy, it will compare the instrumental account with an explanation based on the Kantian idea of respect for persons, in terms of which the denial of procedural rights is intrinsically unjust. It will investigate which of these explanations is better suited to enhance the legitimacy of the criminal justice system.