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CLP | Alec Walen: Punishment, Penalty, and Incapacitation

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Academic Law Law - CLP Law - General Public Law - Students Philosophy

Wed, Jan 28, 2026

3:30 PM – 5:30 PM PST (GMT-8)

Law Building (LAW), LAW 3500

401 East Peltason Drive, Irvine , CA 92697, United States

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The UC Irvine Center for Legal Philosophy welcomes Professor Alec Walen in an author-meets-critics discussion of his forthcoming book, Punishment, Penalty, and Incapacitation: A Dignity- Respecting Model of Targeted Restrictions of Liberty for Liberal States (Oxford University Press, 2026).Professor Jeffrey Helmreich of the UC Irvine Department of Philosophy and Professor Kenneth Simons of the UC Irvine School of Law will serve as commentators.

Publisher's Description
Detention is among the most controversial and complex powers a state can exercise over an individual, raising the fundamental question: how can a liberal state justify restricting the liberty of certain individuals for the security of others, while still upholding the dignity of those whose freedom is curtailed? 

Punishment, Penalty, and Incapacitation seeks to answer that question by distinguishing four types of justification for targeted restrictions of liberty: deserved punishment, forfeiture of rights, enforceable duties to self-restrict, and lack of accountability. This book maintains that targeted restrictions of liberty must appeal to one of the four justifications listed above, and that each type of justification imposes characteristic limits on the way restrictions can operate.

Drawing on a wide range of legal and political sources, this book offers a foundational inquiry into the theory of detention and other targeted limits on liberty, and develops a rigorous model for their justification in liberal democratic states. 

About the Author
Professor Alec Walen is Distinguished Professor of Law and Philosophy, Rutgers University, and co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy. His research focuses on the philosophical foundations of moral rights and criminal law, and he has published in numerous journals, including Ethics, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, and Philosophy and Public Affairs.

To request reasonable accommodations for a disability, please email centers@law.uci.edu.