'Doing sanctions with words': legacy, scope, fairness and future (?) of a reprimand

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Papeikimas; Teisinė sankcija; Bausmė; Kalbinis performatyvumas; Reprimand; Legal sanction; Punishment; Criminal; Linguistic performativity.

ENThe paper aims at presenting with the short analytical expose of a phenomenon of a reprimand as a matter of the legal process and, more specifically, the specific – linguistic – way of punishing. The main underlying issue raised in the analysis is the question could we still ‘do sanctions with words’ in law and, especially, the penal one after the critique of the inherence of psychological violence, paternalism and even primitivism in this approach to the process of punishing? Skipping the vast historical background, the research proceeds with more theoretical and relevant today analysis of the linguistic-performativity-rich and persisting ‘reprimandish’ nature of law. The juxtaposition of this nature with the contemporary tendencies of the insisted reforms in the fields of the crime control and the system of punishments allow presenting with the perspective/future of a reprimand as the part of a broader linguistic and educational process/project of changing a criminal and whole society. The research concludes with the underlying idea that the transformation of the system of law and, especially, the field of punishments from affecting primarily the body to affecting primarily the mind requires reconsideration and, in such instances as that of a reprimand, rehabilitation of the overall linguistic performativity of law and its socio-holistic educational role. [From the publication]