New in paperback: The Dual Penal State by Professor Markus Dubber

The Dual Penal State: The Crisis of Criminal Law in Comparative-Historical Perspective (Oxford University Press) by Faculty of Law Professor Markus D. Dubber, director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics, provides an account of the two sides of contemporary criminal justice regimes: principled punishment and punitive discipline.

The book explores the 'dual penal state' paradox of meting out criminal justice in liberal polities and analyses the prima facie illegality of state penal violence and the continuing failure of liberal criminal law theory adequately to address this. Read the full description at OUP.

Originally published in 2018, the book advances Dubber’s influential research on the history and theory of police power recently cited in publications such as Artforum, The New Yorker and Boston Review.

The new paper edition will be published on February 21, 2021 in North America and a German translation is underway.