Professor Fernando Bracaccini Delivers Public Lecture at Mexican Supreme Court’s Legal Studies Center

Professor Fernando Bracaccini delivered a public lecture on May 15th at the Center for Legal Studies of the Mexican Supreme Court. The lecture, titled “A Relational Approach to Blame and Forgiveness,” attracted an audience of over 3,500 participants, reflecting wide international interest in contemporary questions of legal and moral responsibility, and, more specifically, in how our societies should respond to crime.

In his presentation, Professor Bracaccini addressed the following question: once wrongdoing occurs, should we blame and punish wrongdoers or forgive them? He argued that our primary duty in responding to wrongs is to hold wrongdoers responsible, something can, in principle, be done through either blame or forgiveness. However, he emphasized that our relationships—personal in interpersonal contexts and political in legal contexts—often require us to choose one response over the other.

These relational demands, he proposed, arise from three key factors:

• How blame or forgiveness affects the prospects of realizing shared projects within our relationships;

• The need to uphold the moral value of our relationships; and

• The special duties to care for fellow participants in those relationships.

While not all relationships impose strict requirements on how we should respond to wrongdoing, many do, especially those that constitute the foundations of our political and legal communities.

Professor Bracaccini’s model challenges the common assumption that forgiveness necessarily involve a moral sacrifice—such as forgoing retribution, the reaffirmation of norms, or neglecting victims' dignity. Instead, he contended that forgiveness can itself serve as a way of holding wrongdoers responsible, which is often grounded in the normative significance of the bonds we share with them. The appropriate response to wrongdoing flows from the demands of legitimate relationships—whether interpersonal or civic.

Drawing on historical examples from post-apartheid South Africa and post-dictatorship Argentina, the lecture showed how different political contexts may call for blame or forgiveness, and how these choices reflect the relational fabric of answering to crime. In addition, Professor Bracaccini argued that duties of care embedded in our political relationships rule out certain penal responses, such as the death penalty or banishment.

In this way, this framework is meant to offer guidance to lawmakers considering amnesties, and provides significant limits to the forms punishment can take.

The lecture is part of Professor Bracaccini’s broader research agenda on the role of forgiveness within legal accountability, contributing to ongoing debates in criminal law theory.