Cesare Beccaria
Cesare Beccaria (actually Bonesana; born March 15, 1738 in Milan, † November 28, 1794 ) was an important Italian philosopher of law and criminal law reformers in the Age of Enlightenment. Because of his work " Dei delitti e delle pene " ( German: "Of the crimes and the punishments ") of this reconnaissance also " classical school of criminology " is considered the founder of the.
Main work
1758 he finished his studies in law at the University of Pavia. He became famous for his 1764 published and translated into many languages book " Dei delitti e delle pene " ( German: "Of the crimes and the punishments "). In this, influenced by Enlightenment thought, and the utilitarian ethics work he defended the thesis that the state should impose only the amount of penalties that is required to maintain order. At sentencing, the principle of proportionality is observed. It is not the severity of punishment is decisive, but the consistent application of the penal laws. Torture and the death penalty declined Beccaria.
Reception
The earliest German translations are by Albrecht Wittenberg (Hamburg 1766 ), by Jakob Schultes (Ulm 1767), by Philipp Jakob Flathe with notes by Karl Ferdinand Hommel (Breslau 1778; 2nd edition 1788), by Johann Adam Bergk (Leipzig 1798 new edition 1817), later by Hermann Gareis (Leipzig 1841), Julius Glaser ( Vienna 1851, 2nd edition 1876) and M. Waldeck (Berlin 1870). Among commented published by Voltaire ( " Commentaire sur le livre des délits et des peines ", 1766 ) and Diderot earn ( in the edition of Röderer ) and sound ( " From crime and punishment ", Leipzig 1779) referred to be.
His work formed throughout Europe, the basis for reform of criminal law. However, this did not mean that his views would be immediately met with general approval. In German-speaking about was the first, in 1766, written by Albrecht von Haller review of his magnum opus, a scathing review in which the reviewer spoke out even for the acquisition of the English criminal law, which at that time also minor offenses could already draw the death penalty. In the same year also Moses Mendelssohn expressed critical of Beccaria, while many of his sympathizers (about Karl Ferdinand Hommel ) Although Beccaria's principle of aiming at sentencing proportionality supported, but at the same time held fast to the death penalty as a last resort of the criminal proceedings against felons.
Among the contemporary defenders of the death penalty included, among others Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. They all expressed the view that the state must remain a last resort in the death penalty for the purposes of inquiry-based retaliation criminal law, to respond to serious violations of the law can.
The effect of Beccaria is therefore to evaluate for the German speaking less than trigger a rethinking, because rather than ideas and reasoning helper in a later ( in the early 19th century) feeding for reasons other process of a gradual abandonment of the state of the death penalty and torture. The time now gradually occurring many doubters about the meaning of the death penalty could reinforce this departure with Beccaria's arguments and accelerate.
Other works
Beccaria also conducted research in the field of economics, Elementi di economia pubblica his work appeared posthumously in 1804.
Beccaria Medal
In memory of Beccaria Césare the Criminological Society awards the Beccaria Medal.