ultima ratio

English

Etymology

Latin [Term?]

Noun

ultima ratio (uncountable)

1. (law) legal philosophy under which penal redress to crime should only be used as a measure of last resort
   • 2020, Máximo Langer, “Penal Abolitionism and Criminal Law Minimalism: Here and There, Now and Then”, in Harvard Law Review‎^[1], volume 134, number 42, page 73:

     Since punishment (including death and prison in the United States) is the harshest type of public measure or burden that the state may take or impose against an individual and the state has the duty to consider the rights and interests of all people involved or affected by a situation (including those who cause harm), the ultima ratio principle requires that less harmful responses or measures, including noncriminal ones, be adopted if those responses or measures would adequately advance a legitimate goal such as addressing harmful behavior.

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ultima ratiō, from the phrase ultima ratiō rēgum (“last resort of the kings”) that King Louis XIV of France had inscribed on the cannons made in 1650, and the similar one, ultima ratiō rēgis (“last resort of the king”), put by King Frederick II of Prussia on cannons after 1742, both almost certainly inspired by Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer Pedro Calderón de la Barca, who, in one of his works of comedy, defined artillery as ultima razón de Reyes (“last resort of kings”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈul.ti.ma ˈrat.t͡sjo/
• Rhymes: -attsjo
• Hyphenation: ùl‧ti‧ma‧rà‧tio

Noun

ultima ratio f (invariable)

1. (uncommon) last resort

   Synonym: extrema ratio

Further reading

• ultima ratio in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana