In working out his theory of retributive punishment, Nozick argues that self-defense should be treated the same as or at least equivalent to punishment. Though Nozick's "down payment" strikes contemporary legal theorists as counterintuitive, it is not necessarily wrong. A legal system that seeks to be self-administering would enthrone self-defense as the primary mode of suppressing aggressive intrusions. State punishment might then appear as a continuation of the repressive measures initiated by the threatened victim. If this were the prevailing view of self-defense and punishment, the "down payment" thesis would come into focus as a tenable claim. Punishment goes beyond the maintenance of the lawful order by realizing an imperative to do justice -- or to avoid the injustice of suffering unsanctioned crime. 29 notes