On the Immorality of Punishment

Abstract

1. This Conference was originally planned to honour Professor Julius Stone on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. It is my sad duty to open it tonight by honouring his blessed memory. He was not only one of the greatest philosophers of law, not only a brilliant jurist and an inspiring teacher, but also a longstanding and faithful friend who defended Israel's claim to a rightful place among the nations with deep conviction and persistent involvement. He taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem — as at dozens of universities all over the free world — as a visiting professor, and graced the Truman Institute for Peace at the Hebrew University as its first director. His monumental work onThe Province and Function of Law, written almost fifty years ago, still ranks as one of our leading and indispensable textbooks, and I shall not enumerate to you the now famous titles of the many books which followed it. Not only his own fora, first the University of Sydney and later the University of New South Wales, but the whole academic world, suffered a grievous loss when he died last year; and for the organizers of the Conference, it is a sad disappointment that thecathedra honoris causawhich had been reserved for him had to remain empty.