ABSTRACT
The next two chapters are concerned with two specific problems of political philosophy and their connection with theorising about punishment. Having defined punishment as a state response to breaches of the criminal law, it is obviously necessary to say something about the nature, scope and functions of the criminal law, and, having done so, to explore the relationship in which citizens stand to that law: the problem of political obligation. Without some understanding of the factors relevant to these broader questions of justice within political society, a justifying argument for punishment must be incomplete.
