Overview

Detention is among the most controversial and complex powers a state can exercise over an individual, raising the fundamental question: how can a liberal state justify restricting the liberty of certain individuals for the security of others, while still upholding the dignity of those whose freedom is curtailed? Punishment, Penalty, and Incapacitation seeks to answer that question by distinguishing four types of justification for targeted restrictions of liberty: deserved punishment, forfeiture of rights, enforceable duties to self-restrict, and lack of accountability. This book maintains that targeted restrictions of liberty must appeal to one of the four justifications listed above, and that each type of justification imposes characteristic limits on the way restrictions can operate. Drawing on a wide range of legal and political sources, this book offers a foundational inquiry into the theory of detention and other targeted limits on liberty, and develops a rigorous model for their justification in liberal democratic states.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alec Walen, JD, PhD (Distinguished Professor of Law and Philosophy, Distinguished Professor of Law and Philosophy, Rutgers University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 16.70cm , Height: 3.70cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.653kg
ISBN:  

9780199325795

ISBN 10:   0199325790
Pages:   408
Publication Date:   03 June 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction and Moral Background 1: Introduction 2: Methodological Commitments and Foundational Ideas 3: A Dignity-Respecting Model of Rights for Liberal States 4: In Defense of the Presumption of Law Abidingness Part II. Criminal Law 5: Criminal Law and the Retributive Idea of Deserved Punishment 6: An Account of Blame and Guilt as the Basis for Censure and Punishment 7: A Theory of Punishment as a Blaming Response to Culpable Wrongdoing 8: Proportionality's Constraint Part III. The Value and Limits of the Criminal Law 9: Consequentialist Concerns about the Criminal Law 10: The Standing to Blame of an Unjust State 11: The Restorative Justice Alternative to Punishment 12: The Straitjacket of Proportional Punishment Part IV. Penal Law 13: Overview of the Penal Law 14: A Theory of Forfeiture 15: Doctrinal Basics for the Penal Law Part V. Incapacitation 16: Forfeiture of the Presumption of Law Abidingness 17: The Duty to Accept Restrictions for the Sake of Others 18: Pretrial Detention: A Case Study 19: Limited Accountability: Intrinsic 20: Limited Accountability: Extrinsic 21: Conclusions

Reviews

08/12/2025

Author Information

Alec Walen is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers Law School and co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy. His research focuses on the philosophical foundations of moral rights and the criminal law and he has published in numerous journals, including Ethics, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, and Philosophy and Public Affairs. His previous book was The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War (OUP: 2019).

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