Voltaire’s Thought in the Search for Penal Freedom: Contemporary Reflections on Brazilian Criminal Law Based on “The Price of Justice”

Abstract

Throughout this article, the reader will find specific reflections on the need for security in criminal matters (curbing the vulgarization of criminal law), and how Voltaire develops a theorem to safeguard and legitimize the usefulness of the penal system. Returning to the time when Voltaire wrote, Western Europe was under the surveillance of monarchical absolutism, so there was no de facto criminal justice, but rather criminal repression, there was no idea of criminal law, no guarantees and no criminal principles that are extremely valued in Brazilian ideals in current criminal law, the methods that were used at the time were irrational methods that added nothing to society, on the contrary, they stimulated terrorist and massacring violence. The topic extensively studied and developed in this article, which was produced using the logical-deductive method, and above all based on bibliographical reviews of national and international authors, refers to Voltaire’s ideology on the work The Price of Justice . These are contemporary reflections on his philosophical approaches to the subject, and his reflections in terms of freedom.