2025 Conference Objects and Essays

Centering Mercy: What Seneca’s De Clementia means for Institutional Justice

Breuker, Abigail

This paper argues for the importance of mercy as a guiding virtue in the criminal justice system, following the arguments of Seneca’s De Clementia. In particular, I argue that Seneca portrays mercy not only as an individual virtue, but as an institutional one. In doing so, I offer a new reading of the De Clementia which emphasizes its focus on features of the state, rather than just individual psychology. While some legal philosophers have used the De Clementia to argue for individual mercy within the justice system, I show that this reading does not do justice to Seneca’s argument. Ultimately, viewing mercy as an institutional virtue puts explicit pressure on systemic features that prevent the exercise of mercy, such as mandatory minimum sentencing.