The modern view of penal theory is heavily influenced by G. W. Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), especially with respect to the inherent justice of penal law; to be more specific, what is addressed is the issue of the justification of the state’s right to punish offenders.According to Hegel, law is equivalent to spiritual reality, as a matter of consequence the injustice, the wrong (Swedish: orätten),by its very nature, is a negation of spiritual reality,whereby the law in the case of a wrong (re)asserts itself by negating the negation of the law that the wrong brought about. In order to effectuate this negation of the wrong an equivalent evil (punishment), must be inflicted on the offender.404 Among the newer theories we find Binding’s, which Hägerström considered to be closely associated with Hegel’s.The substratum of both theories is the idea that retribution is just provided that the violated party has imperium (Swedish: härskarrätt) either, or both, over himself (as was the case in status naturalis) and over other persons and a territory (as is the case in status civilis).405 On Swedish soil, we find Thyrén, whose doctrines prevailed during the early 20th Century. Thyrén argues that punishment itself is justified and gains legitimacy on account of the delinquent’s actions violating the commands that the state has issued for the protection of certain social values, a violation that threatens the integrity of the legal order.According to Hägerström,Thyrén’s theory comprises the idea of general prevention - that the punishment functions as a deterrent that must invariably be inflicted on the offender as: p a r t v i , c h a p t e r 6 502 “By his action he lowers the authority of the laws and sets a bad example. He must expiate this by punishment, which thus functions as a kind of social indemnification. But that this is just depends upon the fact that he has transgressed the law’s imperatives. It is through this that 404 Hägerström,“Principundersökning,” pp. 222-223;“Fundamental Problems,” pp. 363365. 405 Cf. Hägerström, “Principundersökning,” pp. 222-223; “Fundamental Problems,” pp. 363-365.
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