Pain Matters? The New Life of Poena Naturalis

What purpose does legal punishment serve when the offender is already enduring profound suffering as a consequence of the offence itself? This paper addresses that question through the concept of poena naturalis: the severe suffering that may result from a grave misfortune affecting the offender or those closely related to her, typically as an unintended consequence of her negligent, reckless, or even intentional criminal conduct. I argue that poena naturalis needs not to be conceptually contrasted with legal punishment. Rather, it is best understood as grounding a legal power to mitigate or even waive punishment. On this account, poena naturalis does not place forgiveness in opposition to justice; instead, it reveals their complementarity. The paper therefore defends a compatibilist account of natural punishment that provides a coherent normative framework for addressing the practical and doctrinal questions that must be confronted if the relevance of natural punishment is to be recognised in positive law.