Public lecture with Prof. Alon Harel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dignity and Privatization: The Dignity-based Case against Outsourcing Violence

This lecture will discuss a non-instrumental argument against privatization of certain forms of political violence. Focus is in particular on the privatization of prisons and on the use of mercenaries in wars. This lecture maintains that some governmental decisions simply cannot be executed by private entities. While private individuals may act in conformity with the state's orders, such conformity cannot count as an execution of the order of the state and, furthermore, it cannot be attributed to the state. Harel will also argue that conformity which does not constitute an execution of the state's order is impermissible as it fails to realize the ends for the sake of which the infliction of force is justified, i.e., condemnation of the criminal behavior (in the case of punishment) and fighting for the polity’s public good (in the case of wars).

Alon Harel is a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he holds the Phillip P. Mizock & Estelle Mizock Chair in Administrative and Criminal Law. He was educated at the Hebrew University, Yale University, and Balliol College, Oxford. He has been visiting professor at Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Texas at Austin. Harel writes on political philosophy, jurisprudence, criminal law, constitutional law, and law and economics. A leading advocate of human rights in Israel, Harel has served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Civil Rights inIsrael, and submitted a Brief on Behalf of Conscientious Objectors to the Israeli Supreme Court.

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