International law & the death penalty.

Abstract

In the beginning there was the death penalty. And it was good. Or so the countries of the world and international laws thought. But times do change and there have been many changes on many fronts in international law, general practices, norms and the customary law. When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, the norms of the day were very different than the norms of today. Almost 70 years later the world is different in almost every conceivable way and that extends to how the death penalty should be viewed in a contemporary context. This thesis will examine major international legislation handed down that impacted the evolution of a customary norm with regard to the death penalty. In addition, it will review the current status and recent trends of countries in the abolitionist and retentionist camps, the role of some key non-governmental organizations and a wide survey of relevant literature. Benefits and losses will be checked, alternatives explored and causes for both optimism and pessimism uncovered. In summary, while the direction toward a customary international norm for the universal abolition of the death penalty is emerging, tentatively at first, but gathering speed, the United States remains a significant outlier within the retentionist camp.