Saturday, April 11 at 11:00 AM
The Italian Enlightenment -- and in particular, the writings of an Italian thinker, Cesare Beccaria -- had a major influence on the American Revolution. Beccaria's book, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764), quickly translated into French and then into English as An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1767), shaped the views of countless American revolutionaries and lawmakers on topics ranging from liberty and tyranny to capital punishment and torture. America's foundational legal documents -- the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Bill of Rights -- were all shaped by Beccaria's ideas, and those ideas continue to shape modern-day debates over abuses of power and the criminal justice system.
John Bessler is Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He has published extensively on the topic of capital punishment and on the foundations and origins of American Law.
Presented by Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia, the America-Italy Society of Philadelphia, PI-Philly and Bryn Mawr College.
This is a free event.
