Concept and Context: Mercy in Criminal and Civil Law, Human Rights Law, Religious Law, and Divine Law

Written during the ‘Year of Mercy’ (2016) proclaimed by Pope Francis, this study examines the role of mercy from the perspective of law codes. State law, human rights law, and religious law can all be vehicles of mercy—though seeming to require that the recipient meets any necessary ‘deserving’ criteria. This study argues that divine law reaches beyond notions of innocence or repentance, and directs mankind to follow the example of divine love, in being ‘unconditionally’ concerned with the welfare of the ‘other’, and posits that mercy, when tempered in the interests of social cohesion, or shown for the sake of earthly or heavenly reward, whilst endorsed in a variety of religious texts, falls short of the ideal which Aquinas refers to as ‘the supreme virtue in man’.