Repentance and the Liberal State

The article defends four broad theses: that repentance is the intrinsically appropriate response to moral wrongdoing (Part II); that legal punishment may seek to facilitate repentance and, when repentance is in evidence prior to the completion of a justified punishment, that it can be a legitimate ground for the merciful reduction of the offender’s sentence (Part III); that according repentance the role suggested in Part III is compatible with respecting important constraints that bear on a liberal state (Part IV); and that the state’s responsibility for facilitating repentance extends beyond the period during which offenders are subject to formal legal punishment (Part V).