王, 立峰2019-09-252019-09-252011-06-172004http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/179195In the long history of humankind, Utilitarian and retributive theories of punishment provide different reasons for justifying legal punishment. Retributivists claim justice and desert, utilitariasts claim maximization of social utility. In “Two concepts of Rules”, Rawls put forward a mixed theory to reconciliate the utilitarian and retributive theories. He distinguishes between the justification of an institution and the justification of practice. Rawls points out that utilitarianism justify the punishment as an institution and retributivism justify punishment as a particular case. But because of the weakness of rule utilitarianism, the limits of Rawls’ understandings of traditional utilitarian and retributive theories, idealization of division between legislator and judge, the reconciliation failed.chiWith permission of the license/copyright holderpolitical ethicsPolitical ethicsArticle