The Benevolent Paternalism of Japanese Criminal Justice

From paternalism to benevolent coaching: new model of care.

In the modern North American context, the patientcentred approach has become the foremost ideology of medicine.1 The patient’s centrality and participation in decision making have emerged as strong themes,2 with the result that antipaternalism has become the predominant philosophical position regarding the physician-patient relationship.3 Given this development, our commentary poses the followi...

Victorian Criminal Justice System

The criminal trial constitutes a drama performed by its leading actors (legal professionals) plus supporting actors (including spectators). How conscious and strategic are their performances? This article argues that conscious legal performativity is part of a sustained tradition of 'infotainment' with lasting implications for today's real-life courtroom dramas. The adoption of stereotypical co...

Dangerousness and Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice Ethics

George Fletcher emerges in his writing, as in his life, as a colorful and highly individual figure. The last thing one expects of him is the surrender of individual identity to an anonymous submersion in the collective. Yet doctrinally he is a collectivist. In his recent writings, he has been seeking to collectivize just about everything: action, responsibility, guilt, liability, self-defense, ...

Criminal Justice Ethics

Suppose Alice hits Bert on the head. Prima facie, Alice has done something that she ought not to have done: in hitting Bert she has harmed him, or violated a right of his not to be hit on the head, or interfered with his ability to determine his own ends.2 And yet it may be that Alice should not be punished for hitting Bert, either because her action is justified, or because she is excused. It ...