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Author Martha Minow with Harvard Bookstore

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Thursday, October 10, 2019

Location:
Main Library
449 Broadway
Lecture Hall
Cambridge

Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome renowned legal scholar Martha Minow—former dean of Harvard Law School—for a discussion of her latest book, When Should Law Forgive?

Crimes and violations of the law require punishment, and our legal system is set up to punish, but what if the system was recalibrated to also weigh grounds for forgiveness? What if something like bankruptcy―a fresh start for debtors―were available to people convicted of crimes? Martha Minow explores the complicated intersection of the law, justice, and forgiveness, asking whether the law should encourage people to forgive, and when courts, public officials, and specific laws should forgive.