Overview

The potential power of forgiveness in an age of resentment. Crimes and violations of the law require punishment, and our legal system is set up to punish, but what if the system was recalibrated to also weigh grounds for forgiveness? What if something like bankruptcy--a fresh start for debtors--were available to people convicted of crimes? Martha Minow explores the complicated intersection of the law, justice, and forgiveness, asking whether the law should encourage people to forgive, and when courts, public officials, and specific laws should forgive. Who has the right to forgive? Who should be forgiven? And under what terms? Minow tackles these foundational issues by exploring three questions: What does the international response to child soldiers teach us about the legal treatment of juvenile offenders in the US? Why are the laws surrounding corporate debt more forgiving than those governing American student and consumer debt, and sovereign debt in the developing world? When do law's tools of forgiveness, amnesties, and pardons strengthen justice, peace, and democracy (think South Africa), and when do they undermine law's promise of fairness (think Joe Arpaio)?

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9781665122306

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Janet Metzger, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, has performed as a stage, television, voice, and film actor and as a jazz vocalist in hotels and supper clubs. For five years she was the voice of Headline News, now HLN, during which time she also promoted features and news stories for CNN and CNN International. She is a graduate of Florida State University. Martha Minow is the 300th Anniversary University Professor and former dean of the Harvard Law School. She has been writing about and advocating for forgiveness for decades, beginning with the Independent International Commission on Kosovo and the Imagine Coexistence program for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

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