Judicial and Correctional Ethics Paper Assignment

It should be 2-3 pages, double-spaced, in 12-pt. font, with standard margins. (Note: everything above the first line of your paper does not count towards the 2-page minimum.) You should draw on at least three of our readings from the second section of our course (from Ezorsky to Hart). See the document entitled ‘Paper Guidelines and Writing Tips’ to get a sense of how a good paper should be composed.

Write on one of the following topics:

1) What is the justification for punishment? Explain how a utilitarian, a retributivist, and a teleological retributivist might each answer this question.

2) Hart argues that the question of how punishment can be justified actually conflates at least two questions: how can the overall system of punishment be justified, and how should punishment be distributed. Explain how Hart would answer these two questions, and how he would criticize the utilitarian view and the retributivist view, using at least one example of each view from our readings.

I will attach the 3 readings based on the topic 1 or 2 you chose to write on.