Inspired by the Philosophers of the Enlightenment and helped by the current events of the time, Beccaria questions the judicial system in a global way. Apart from any religious model, Beccaria establishes the bases and the limits of the right to punish, and recommends to proportion the punishment to the offence. He also establishes in principle the separation of religious and judicial powers. Denouncing the cruelty of certain punishments compared to the crime committed, he judged "barbaric" the practice of torture and the death penalty, and recommended to prevent crime rather than to repress it, thus starting the first abolitionist movement.

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France Culture | Les chemins de la philosophie | Beccaria, Des délits et des peines

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Cesare Beccaria