The death penalty : arguments from the moral, human rights and constitutional perspective : a comparative study between the United States of America and Europe

Abstract

Of all the struggles for the enhancement of human dignity and the development of human rights, the one to abolish the death penalty seems to be the hardest to win. The death penalty has been strongly opposed on the grounds that it is a violation of human rights as well as being the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. On these grounds, Western Europe has practically eradicated its existence, but various other countries, including the United States of America, are still making use of it as a means of punishment, even for ordinary crimes. In the first chapter of this thesis, I provide a global historical perspective of the movement towards abolition of the death penalty. I then proceed to highlight the different arguments pertinent to the first issue under scrutiny in this study - that of morality and the death penalty. The prohibition, or mere limitation, of the death penalty as a violation of human rights in international law is analysed in the third chapter. I then take Europe and the United States, as case studies of democratic States in the twentieth century, to show how and why such different roads in dealing with the death penalty have been taken in this day and age when globalisation is so strong. Through this analysis I have aimed at showing how there can be no moral justification for the killing by States under the protective umbrella of the institution of punishment. Also, how capital punishment is, in the post Second World War period, considered to be a vile and flagrant violation of our human rights, even at an international law level to some extent. The norms concerning the limitations on the implementation of the death penalty in international law are slowly attaining the status of customary norms of international law. To my mind one this is one of the most effective ways to bring about the abolition of the death penalty. Finally that one factor alone, be it e.g. Government policy, international law, human rights organisation or political pressure, will never bring about abolition. It is only the aggregate of a large number of factors that might bring about unison in human rights protection, which will then strengthen the position of international law until prohibition of the death penalty will attain the status of international law.