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RESEARCH PRODUCT

On the issue of the most serious crime in the penal doctrine of Domat

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Domat's reflection on the most serious crimes follows a rich theological and legal tradition, which has been examining the subject since the twelfth century. Hostile to the Stoic idea of equality of faults, the jurisconsult acknowledges the existence of a hierarchy of crimes. His various criminal classifications (the targets of the crime, the types of crime, the possessions that can be achieved by the crime), if they actually obey the rational logic that constantly directs his method, however, do not facilitate the discovery of what constitutes according to him the most serious crime; many of his successors (among them Muyart de Vouglans) will follow a different path, focusing more specifically on the circumstances changing the severity of the crime. Domat probably refused to consider this issue to be a specific problem, that deserved to be separated from the general analysis of the crime.