BETWEEN COMMANDMENT AND SANCTION: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE PATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS, AND THE LIMITS OF PUNITIVE POWER IN DIALOGUE WITH CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

Abstract

This article offers a comparative analysis between the Ten Commandments and biblical formulations of justice, responsibility and judgment, on the one hand, and contemporary Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, on the other. It does not equate sin with crime or Scripture with a state criminal code. Rather, it examines how distinct normative systems address the limitation of human conduct, fear of sanction, responsibility, judgment and the protection of others. Particular attention is given to the prohibitions against killing, stealing and bearing false witness, as well as to the biblical contrast between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. These themes are placed in dialogue with legality, culpability, proportionality, deterrence, presumption of innocence, adversarial proceedings and due process. The central argument is that fear of punishment may restrain conduct, but neither Christian moral life nor a democratic criminal justice system can be adequately reduced to fear.