Limits on Criminalization III: Standing to Command and Punish

Abstract This chapter is one of the three chapters that explore several principles that provide sources of limitation on the state’s power to criminalize and punish disobedience. This chapter argues that the state at times may find itself in a situation where its laws seek to criminalize and punish disobedience, yet it lacks standing to demand obedience because it is not cooperation-worthy. In such situations where the state lacks standing to demand obedience, it may need to refrain from punishing individuals for mere disobedience. This chapter then argues that the state, in order to avoid such uncomfortable and corrosive situations where a law is broken but it does not have the standing to enforce the law against the person who has broken the law, must work continually to earn its cooperation-worthiness and maintain its standing to set rules and demand obedience and punish disobedience.