Retributive Damages: A Theory of Punitive Damages as Intermediate Sanction

Abstract

After offering some background on punitive damages and how retributive justice differs from other rationales for punitive damages (such as optimal deterrence or victim vindication), the Article describes the structure of retributive damages and clahjfies the comparative advantages of retributive damages vis-a-vis other remedies and mechanisms.Finally, the Article defends the retributive damages framework against possible constitutional objections.Importantly, the account here not only answers Sunstein's challenge, but also promises to make sense of the Supreme Court's recent and somewhat puzzling holding in Philip Morris USA v. Williams, i.e., that juries may not calculate punitive damages by considering the amount of [Vol.