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Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice
For over thirty years Ernest van den Haag repeatedly asserted a controversial claim in favour of the death penalty. He argued that, regardless of the extent to which capital punishment sentences are unequally, arbitrarily, or even racially, maldistributed among offenders, capital punishment is alway...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Institute of Criminology
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613236114751488 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Traub, Craig Michael |
| author2 | Van der Spuy, Elrena |
| author_browse | Traub, Craig Michael Van der Spuy, Elrena |
| author_facet | Van der Spuy, Elrena Traub, Craig Michael |
| author_sort | Traub, Craig Michael |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | For over thirty years Ernest van den Haag repeatedly asserted a controversial claim in favour of the death penalty. He argued that, regardless of the extent to which capital punishment sentences are unequally, arbitrarily, or even racially, maldistributed among offenders, capital punishment is always a morally valid sentence in se. His controversial claim is rooted in the theory of retributive justice, as he appeals to the offender's individual moral desert to justify capital punishment for the crime of (first-degree) murder. Thus, van den Haag summarised his claim into a logical axiom - that unequal justice (i.e. capital punishment) is always preferable to equal injustice (i.e. abolitionism or life imprisonment). Van den Haag challenged abolitionists to refute his axiom by using his same retributive foundation. This is something abolitionists have been unable to do without resorting to consequentialist or hybrid reasoning. This theoretical dissertation has sought to find the flaws in van den Haag's logic and dispute his axiom on his own retributive grounds utilising, particularly, racial maldistribution of capital sentences. In this dissertation four attempts are made to dispute his axiom and the following arguments are identified: (i) an internal inconsistency within van den Haag's axiom; (ii) an argument for an implicit illegitimate authority, as well as (iii) an argument for an explicit illegitimate authority; and finally, (iv) an argument concerning the subjective experience of the offender when presented with a sentence of death. It is, however, the final argument that carries the most weight in disputing van den Haag's axiom. Thus, this dissertation has met his challenge by rendering the death penalty immoral in itself, even when the justification for the death penalty is retributive. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/43139 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:56.154Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Institute of Criminology |
| publisherStr | Institute of Criminology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/43139 Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice Traub, Craig Michael Van der Spuy, Elrena Phelps, Kelly Criminology Criminal Justice For over thirty years Ernest van den Haag repeatedly asserted a controversial claim in favour of the death penalty. He argued that, regardless of the extent to which capital punishment sentences are unequally, arbitrarily, or even racially, maldistributed among offenders, capital punishment is always a morally valid sentence in se. His controversial claim is rooted in the theory of retributive justice, as he appeals to the offender's individual moral desert to justify capital punishment for the crime of (first-degree) murder. Thus, van den Haag summarised his claim into a logical axiom - that unequal justice (i.e. capital punishment) is always preferable to equal injustice (i.e. abolitionism or life imprisonment). Van den Haag challenged abolitionists to refute his axiom by using his same retributive foundation. This is something abolitionists have been unable to do without resorting to consequentialist or hybrid reasoning. This theoretical dissertation has sought to find the flaws in van den Haag's logic and dispute his axiom on his own retributive grounds utilising, particularly, racial maldistribution of capital sentences. In this dissertation four attempts are made to dispute his axiom and the following arguments are identified: (i) an internal inconsistency within van den Haag's axiom; (ii) an argument for an implicit illegitimate authority, as well as (iii) an argument for an explicit illegitimate authority; and finally, (iv) an argument concerning the subjective experience of the offender when presented with a sentence of death. It is, however, the final argument that carries the most weight in disputing van den Haag's axiom. Thus, this dissertation has met his challenge by rendering the death penalty immoral in itself, even when the justification for the death penalty is retributive. 2026-04-28T10:51:45Z 2026-04-28T10:51:45Z 2009 2026-04-28T10:50:15Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43139 en eng application/pdf Institute of Criminology Faculty of Law University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Criminology Criminal Justice Traub, Craig Michael Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice |
| title_full | Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice |
| title_fullStr | Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice |
| title_full_unstemmed | Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice |
| title_short | Challenging challenges: a metaphysical redress of van den Haag's retributive axiom – unequal justice over equal injustice |
| title_sort | challenging challenges a metaphysical redress of van den haag s retributive axiom unequal justice over equal injustice |
| topic | Criminology Criminal Justice |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43139 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT traubcraigmichael challengingchallengesametaphysicalredressofvandenhaagsretributiveaxiomunequaljusticeoverequalinjustice |