ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the historical legacy of positivist criminology and some pioneering attempts at international collaboration on penal matters. It demonstrates that some progressive ideas put forward by penal reformers during the nineteenth and early twentieth century have been overshadowed by the association of positivist criminology with Social Darwinism and fascism. The chapter discusses that in dismissing those reformist ideas in favour of classical penology, modern human rights discourse may actually have lost the baby with the bathwater. The impact of the positivist ideas was also reflected in the establishment of a number of international bodies to facilitate collaboration on penal matters, most notably the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission. The nineteenth century, especially its second half, was marked by an efflorescence of international organisations dealing with criminological, legal, and penal matters. Human rights and international law scholarship has yet to recognise the intellectual pedigree and ideological genesis of the document.
