The philosophy of rehabilitation is that "not the offense but the character and reformability of the offender should determine his treatment."

La's belief in the reformability of the most abject criminal and her opposition to the death penalty express a full-bodied liberal humanism that the republican state, whatever its expressed ideals, cannot tolerate.

"When I look at what has been happening in the Soviet Union," a top Administration official said, "I have to say to myself: the reformability of its system is open to serious question.

The physicist and humanitarian, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, has always believed in the reformability of the Soviet system, and he sees in Mr. Gorbachev's promises and deeds the confirmation of his faith.

In 2010, she defended her PhD thesis "The reformability of the United Nations" at the University of Mannheim where she used to be a research associate at the department for Political Science II of Prof. Dr. Thomas König with a lectureship for International Policy.