A DISCOURSE ON JEREMY BENTHAM’S PRINCIPLE OF UTILITARIANISM AND ITS IMPACT ON EXTRAJUDICIAL PUNISHMENT.

Abstract

The issue of extrajudicial punishment has become a worrisome phenomenon not just among seasoned legal experts but also leading scholars of moral philosophy. Extrajudicial punishment, as an identifiable moral albatross, denigrates the sacredness and sanctity of the dignity of the human person, hence making it compelling for global concern. The objective of the paper, therefore, is to give a robust exposition of insightful accounts of Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian principle, his moral theory, as it concerns extrajudicial punishment. It demonstrates that the principle of utility adequately shaped and influenced Bentham’s thought in addressing legal, social and political issues of that time. The framework is the consequentialist moral theory, the reason punishment for crime should be for corrective purposes to make the criminal stay away from crime. Finding reveals that the award of punishment for crime was not anchored on the moral principles of rehabilitation, hence, in a bid to reform the legal system, punishment for severe crimes like capital punishment, which was rife during the period under review was vigorously condemned and recommended for abolition. The paper recommends that the intent of punishment should not be predicated on suffering the criminal rather punishment for crime should thrive towards achieving justice for the criminal, the injured and society. It is only when punishment for crime is anchored on the rehabilitative theory of punishment, which is geared towards correcting the criminal in the course of imprisonment, that punishment becomes morally justifiable otherwise punishment becomes a crime against the criminal.