Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T20:04:43.628Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - We’re Exhausting Ourselves, Let’s Get Busy Instead

A Comment on the Contributions by Jakob v.H. Holtermann, Mordechai Kremnitzer and Daniela Demko

from Part II - Rationales for Punishment in International Criminal Law: Theoretical Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2020

Florian Jeßberger
Affiliation:
Universität Hamburg
Julia Geneuss
Affiliation:
Universität Hamburg
Get access

Summary

In his comment on the contributions by Holtermann, Demko and Kremnitzer, Mark Drumbl engages with their respective pleas for a predominance of deterrence, expressivism and retribution. In reference to Kremnitzer’s contribution on retribution, he doubts that ‘victimizers-victims’ deserve punishment. They might deserve something else, but something that is not delivered in a criminal courtroom. While he is sympathetic to the expressivist theory and the communicative function of punishment, as developed by Demko, he doubts that a court room is the best place to host those conversations. He worries that the medium – the court – becomes the message. Similarly, he doubts that the courtroom is the best place to tell the truth. The criminal trial illuminates selectively, not comprehensively. It communicates an incomplete truth that does not shed light on the bystanders, and complicity, side-standers. Finally, with regard to Holtermann, Drumbl – as one of the critics of deterrence that Holtermann criticizes – remains unconvinced that international punishment has a deterrent effect. For him, deterrence can at best be believed through a combination of anecdote, superimposition, and faith.

Type
Chapter
Information
Why Punish Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities?
Purposes of Punishment in International Criminal Law
, pp. 196 - 212
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×