Cesare Beccaria was an Italian jurist and philosopher whose 1764 treatise Dei delitti e delle pene, On Crimes and Punishments, is widely regarded as the founding text of modern criminal law and of the classical school of criminology. Trained in law and holding various official posts in Milan, Beccaria argued against torture and capital punishment and for punishment that was certain, proportionate and public rather than severe, reasoning from the social contract to the limits of the state's authority to punish. His treatise was translated across Europe within years of its publication and directly influenced criminal law reform in numerous states as well as the due process protections later written into the constitutions of the United States. Beccaria also wrote on economics and held academic and administrative posts in Milan, though none of his later work matched the influence of his single treatise on punishment.
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