何以惩罚：论墨菲的法律惩罚理论

Why Punishment: On Murphy’s Theory of Legal Punishment

The justification of legal punishment is a perennial theme in the study of punishment theory, and how to systematically reflect and elucidate the meaning of punishment constitutes the research goal of scholars with different standpoints. However, compared with the research of legal positivism, the contribution of modern natural law to this issue is meager. This situation changed when Murphy proposed to reflect on the issue from the perspective of natural law. He took the common good in natural law as the starting point of punishment theory, not only emphasizing the research value of punishment theory in natural law, but also summarizing and sharply commenting on different camps’ views, and innovatively constructing a retributivist punishment theory based on the natural law standpoint. He emphasized the rationality of legal punishment as a secondary response to the common good, although there was a lack of discussion on the preventive function of punishment, it still showcased the significance and value of Murphy’s legal punishment theory.

法律惩罚的正当性是惩罚理论研究的永恒主题，如何系统性地反思并阐述惩罚的意义构成了不同立场下学者们的研究目标。然而相较于法律实证主义的研究，近现代自然法对于该问题的贡献却功薄蝉翼。这种情况一直到墨菲提出以自然法的立场展开对该问题的思考。他以自然法中的共同善作为惩罚理论的起点，不仅强调了惩罚理论在自然法中的研究价值，还总结并犀利点评了不同阵营的观点，并且在这些观点的基础上创新性地构建了一套基于自然法立场的报应主义惩罚理论。他着重强调的是法律惩罚作为一种次要回应共同善手段的合理性，即使对惩罚的预防功能讨论有所欠缺，也依然展现了墨菲法律惩罚理论的意义与价值。