Abstract
Many rabbinical commentaries have interpreted the original biblical injunction punctiliously. These commentaries are irrelevant to criminal law, whatever their relevance to tort law. This chapter turns to the relation of the lex talionis to criminal law. In moral and philosophical discourse about the criminal law, the lex talionis is sometimes used to contend that the pain or harm inflicted by punishment should not exceed the pain or harm inflicted by the offender on his victim. The purpose of criminal punishment is neither retaliation nor compensation. Indeed, the notions of revenge, retaliation, restitution, or compensation are irrelevant to the criminal law sensustrictiori. The lex talionis suggests a minimum, but no maximum, criminal punishment, although before the criminal law was invented and as long as it was conceived mainly as socialized revenge or compensation, the lex talionis suggested the maximum harm or compensation the victim could exact.
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