ABSTRACT
The publication of Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence provides the opportunity to consider what might be termed the first developed version of Bentham’s legislative program. This was the plan for a unified and comprehensive legal code he termed a Pannomion : a body of law ‘complete in all its branches.’ 1 Bentham, of course, already was pursuing systematic legislative theory for several years prior to the composition of Of the Limits in the period 1780-1782. Nonetheless, the work represented a distinct and major breakthrough. In the letter of July 1784, Bentham observed that his ‘task of invention’ had ‘for some time been accomplished, and all that remain[ed]’ was ‘to put in order ideas ready formed.’ 2 From the vantage point of his entire career, this declaration was wildly optimistic. But it accurately reflected Bentham’s understanding of the achievement of Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence for his codification project. In this chapter, my first goal is to identify the nature of this achievement and to consider Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence in terms of its contribution to Bentham’s Pannomion . Following this account, I shall go on to explore more generally the ways in which this early version of Bentham’s legislative theory continued to inform his mature legislative program.
