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Global Law Working Papers
2005 Series
02/05
Rasmus H. Wandall
Global Research Fellow (2004-2005)
Assistant Research Professor
University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law
"Equality and Sentencing Guidelines: A Comparative Study of Sentencing Law in Minnesota and Denmark"
Abstract
During recent decades, reform movements in the U.S.A. and in Europe have widely been seeking to structure sentencing decision-making. While jurisdictions share this effort to structure, they differ in how they go about it. Such differences bear upon the conceptions of general principles of sentencing. By contrasting Minnesota's numerical sentencing guidelines to the narrative sentencing framework of Denmark, the paper addresses the question of how numerical sentencing guidelines affect the conceptions of a rule based principle of equality. It is argued that the numerical sentencing guidelines of Minnesota, rather than sentencing like individual cases alike, construct a framework for sentencing uniform categories of cases uniformly, and thereby leave behind a notion of individualistic equality.
Contact the Author
rasmus.wandall@jur.ku.dk
