In his weekly Takimag column, Theodore Dalrymple examines another egregious British court decision that once again illustrates the excessive leniency of most Western criminal law courts and the role of parole in undermining the rule of law.

The court’s ruling seems to me both arrogant and decadent: arrogant because it assumes its own moral superiority and presumes to teach others a lesson, and decadent because the lesson it seeks to teach is both morally wrong and redolent of feebleness masquerading as generosity.