In the state of nature every individual holds the right to punish lawbreakers.
Evidence
And that all Men may be restrained from invading others Rights, and from doing hurt to one another, and the Law of Nature be observed, which willeth the Peace and Preservation of all Mankind, the Execution of the Law of Nature is in that State, put into every Man’s Hands, whereby every one has a Right to punish the Transgressors of that Law to such a Degree, as may hinder its Violation. For the Law of Nature would, as all other Laws, that concern Men in this World, be in vain, if there were no Body that in the State of Nature, had a Power to execute that Law, and thereby preserve the Innocent and restrain Offenders. And if any one in the State of Nature may punish another, for any evil he has done, every one may do so. — , Second Treatise of Government and A…, 281
Categorization
- XREF: The executive power of the law of nature is the hinge Locke uses to derive government from consent later in the treatise. — connects to: Sovereign violence is shared by citizens as a right to punish outsiders — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 51; Physical sanctions succeed among individuals because physical equality prevents any single group from dominating. — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 515; Each person shares responsibility for every injustice committed in his presence — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 926 (+15 more)
- SEED: Angle: the original argument that enforcement must be universalized — the seed of both democratic policing and vigilantism debates.
Broader Connections
- Sovereign violence is shared by citizens as a right to punish outsiders
#corroborates(1.00) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 51 - Physical sanctions succeed among individuals because physical equality prevents any single group from dominating.
#complicates(0.90) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 515 - Law operates through coercion in every state including secular ones
#contradicts(0.90) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1234 - Human beings have an inherent property right in their own bodies
#expands(0.90) — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1265 - Law always operates through coercion and authorizes particular patterns of pain
#corroborates(0.90) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1234 - The state of nature is by definition a condition of enmity and injustice.
#contradicts(0.90) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 398 - Each person shares responsibility for every injustice committed in his presence
#qualifies(0.80) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 926 - Ordinary people can commit extreme brutality under the right circumstances
#complicates(0.80) — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 1 - Law’s self-justified punishment replicates the lawlessness it punishes
#complicates(0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1452 - Legal prohibitions against state control create real personal freedoms
#complicates(0.80) - Stateless people can be deprived of all legal rights regardless of any specific crime.
#complicates(0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 720 - A state’s authority is always the claim of particular humans.
#complicates(0.80) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1195 - Even lawbreakers rely on legal certainty to gauge how far they can go
#complicates(0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 187 - Every human life viewed from within is enforced compromise.
#complicates(0.80) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1154 - Every state requires both coercive arms and legitimating belief.
#complicates(0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2187