If the same punishment is prescribed for two crimes that injure society in different degrees, then men will face no stronger deterrent from committing the greater crime if they find it in their advantage to do so.
Cesare BeccariaRead
The laws only can determine the punishment of crimes, and the authority of making penal laws can only reside with the legislator, who represents the whole society united by the social compact.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Laws are meant to govern punishments for crimes, and only elected legislators should create these laws as representatives of society.
This quote encapsulates the idea that a just legal system is founded upon laws that clearly define punishments for criminal behavior. Cesare Beccaria emphasizes the role of legislators in forming these laws, underlining that they are entrusted by the social compact to reflect the will and agreement of the society they govern. Thus, the responsibility for creating fair and equitable laws rests solely with those chosen by the people.
Themes
LawsPunishmentLegislatureSocial CompactSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a law seminar, this quote could be introduced to discuss the role of legislators in the legal system.
More from Cesare Beccaria
All quotes →Easy, simple and great laws, which await nothing but a sign from the lawgiver to spread prosperity and vigour throughout the nation, laws which would earn him immortal hymns of gratitude down the generations, are those which are least considered or least wanted.
Cesare BeccariaRead
In order that punishment should not be an act of violence perpetrated by one or many upon a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, speedy, necessary, the minimum possible in the given circumstances, proportionate to the crime, and determined by the law.
Cesare BeccariaRead
No man ever freely surrendered a portion of his own liberty for the sake of the public good; such a chimera appears only in fiction. If it were possible, we would each prefer that the pacts binding others did not bind us; every man sees himself as the centre of all the world's affairs.
Cesare BeccariaRead
I myself owe everything to French books. They developed in my soul the sentiments of humanity which had been stifled by eight years of fanatical and servile education.
Cesare BeccariaRead
The lawgiver ought to be gentle, lenient and humane. The lawgiver ought to be a skilled architect who raises his building on the foundation of self-love, and the interest of all ought to be the product of the interests of each.
Cesare BeccariaRead
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