Extrajudicial Executions Working Papers Series
The Project on Extrajudicial Executions maintains a working paper series showcasing new scholarship on the many aspects of international law on the right to life.
| No.09, 2006 |
The Enigma of the 'Most Serious' Offences Roger Hood Abstract. This paper deals with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights' provision that 'in countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentences may be imposed only for the most serious crimes ....' Situating the provision in the context of its drafting, the paper clarifies that, while its ambiguity reflected a lack of consensus regarding the particular crimes for which capital punishment was prohibited, it served as a 'marker' for the policy of moving toward abolition through restriction, encouraging a subsequent process of dynamic interpretation. The paper goes on to describe how the situation as regards the scope and practice of capital punishment has changed since the provision was drafted, necessitating a constant reappraisal of the meaning that should be attached to the concept of 'most serious crimes'. The paper then traces the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom and the part played by the failed attempt to define, within the crime of murder, a category of the 'most serious'. The paper concludes with a discussion of the necessity for open review, research and publication of statistics on the use of the death penalty so as to inform the public of the manifold problems of the enforcement of capital punishment within a legal structure that is seeking to embrace the concepts of the rule of law and respect for human rights. |
| No.04, 2005 |
A Human Rights Law of Internal Armed Conflict: The European Court of Human Rights in Chechnya William Abresch Abstract. The cases on Chechnya recently decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) force us to reevaluate the relationship between human rights law and humanitarian law. Since the International Court of Justice held that humanitarian law is lex specialis to human rights law in 1996 - if not since the Tehran Conference of 1968 - it has been widely accepted that 'human rights in armed conflict' refers to humanitarian law. The ECtHR has directly applied human rights law to the conduct of hostilities in internal armed conflicts. The rules it has applied may prove controversial, but humanitarian law’s limited substantive scope and poor record of achieving compliance in internal armed conflicts suggest the importance of this new approach. |
| No.03, 2005 |
Capital Punishment: The USA in World Perspective Roger Hood Abstract. This paper traces the history of the death penalty's progressive abolition and outlines future opportunities. The author argues that after two hundred years of slow progress, the past two decades have seen a "new wave" of abolition. In this new wave the pace at which new countries have abolished the death penalty has increased dramatically. In addition, these countries have usually achieved abolition swiftly, within a few years, often without moving deliberately through each of the stages of reform that had previously tended to precede abolition. The author analyzes the factors that have produced this new wave, pointing to capital punishment's transformation from a criminal justice policy issue to a fundamental human rights issue and the key role played by political leadership - rather than major shifts in popular opinion. The author concludes with an analysis of the possibilities for abolition in the remaining retentionist countries. He points especially to the persistence of capital punishment in the United States as one of the greatest obstacles to universal acceptance of the view that the death penalty inherently abuses human rights and outline strategies that may overcome this persistence. |
This working paper series forms part of the working paper series of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law. For submission guidelines, click here.