Beyond the Traditional Grammar of Punishment: An Introduction

Abstract

While modern criminal law has largely been structured around established notions of individual responsibility, blame, punishment, and reparation, some of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary societies increasingly expose the limits of these categories. This introductory contribution presents the themes and common concerns that animate the essays collected in this thematic issue, namely the growing dissatisfaction with traditional penal paradigms and the search for alternative conceptions of punishment, responsibility, and justice capable of addressing structural injustice, environmental harm, social conflict, and emerging forms of accountability. At the same time, the article introduces the issue’s central problem: the tension between individual accountability and the systemic conditions within which wrongdoing and harm take shape. Situating these debates within a broader critical tradition that has questioned the relationship between law, violence, and justice, the contribution examines the opportunities and limits of criminal law as an instrument of social change and explores the extent to which contemporary legal institutions are capable of responding to harms that exceed traditional punitive frameworks.