Pardons Discretionary Mercy and the Rule of Law in Britain and America, 1066–2026

Pardons is an unprecedented history of the pardon power, chronicling how British monarchs and American presidents have wielded clemency to afford mercy, reconcile societies, and exert executive supremacy. The book traces the pardon power from its origins as an attribute of absolute monarchy to its adoption by the American Framers as one of the few enumerated powers of the president of the United States. It tells the stories, human and political, of all forty-five presidents who have wielded the pardon power and of those they pardoned. The book argues that the increasing abuse of presidential clemency and the effective elimination of impeachment and criminal prosecution as constraints on presidential misconduct have made the pardon power a threat to the rule of law. To address this growing danger, Pardons calls for presidential pardon powers to be eliminated or transferred to Congress by constitutional amendment.