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Le bonheur du plus grand nombre

Le bonheur du plus grand nombre

Beccaria et les Lumières


La croisée des chemins



The Happiness of the Greatest Number
Beccaria and the Enlightenment

In what way does Beccaria's little book Délits et des peines (On Crimes and Punishments – 1764), appear as a considered break with tradition? The question is central to our modernity: in what way can one say that this book is the source of our criminal law?

Our starting point in this book is the following fact: in Enlightenment Europe, Beccaria’s book was considered a milestone and a turning point as soon as it was published. Shedding light on its sources and circulation, the contributions gathered here seek to assess its originality. From legal codification to the presumption of innocence, secularity in criminal law, and the abolition of the death penalty, Beccaria both builds on an existing tradition and disrupts the field of discussions and debates.

Des délits et des peines, as striking in its style and as in its repercussions, is a unique vantage point to better understand the cultural crisis at the end of the Ancien Regime and the birth of contemporary culture.