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Parisi, Francesco; Frezza, Giampaolo --- "Cesare Beccaria (1738–94)" [2005] ELECD 158; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420321

Section: Chapter 34

Section Title: Cesare Beccaria (1738–94)

Author(s): Parisi, Francesco; Frezza, Giampaolo

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

34 Cesare Beccaria (1738­94)
Francesco Parisi and Giampaolo Frezza


It has now become a question of style for American authors to list Cesare
Beccaria among the forerunners of the economic analysis of criminal law,1
with specific reference to the work entitled Dei delitti e delle pene (On crimes
and punishments) (1764).2 Beccaria was born in Milan, Italy to a wealthy
aristocratic family. He studied at a private college in Parma and graduated
from the University of Pavia Law School at the age of 20. During his lifetime
Beccaria held leading administrative posts in the Council of Lombardy and
served as provincial magistrate, while remaining an active member of cul-
tural circles and a proponent of legislative reform.

Beccaria's theories of social welfare
In the history of economic thought, Beccaria is occasionally included among
the fathers of modern utilitarianism. Scholars have debated the appropriate-
ness of such inclusion, given the frequent use of contractarian theories in his
work. Beccaria's work shows that utilitarian theories can be built on
contractarian premises, and his combined use of contrasting paradigms proves
that the two perspectives can successfully coexist.
According to some scholars, Beccaria utilized a hypothetical contractarian
framework to justify the purely utilitarian choices of positive law. In reality,
he successfully combined the utilitarian and contractarian perspectives into a
single coherent framework. In this respect, contractarianism helped him avoid
the paradoxes of pure utilitarianism. Additionally, Beccaria provided a pow-
erful inspiration to Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian approach to social ...