Litigation and the Abolition of the Mandatory Death Penalty

Abstract

The abolition of the mandatory death penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean, East Africa, and South Asia was the product of strategic human rights litigation brought by a network of London-based human rights lawyers and their partners on the ground. By petitioning international tribunals and domestic courts, these lawyers successfully cultivated a global body of persuasive jurisprudence that they could cite in future legal pleadings. The transmission of both legal expertise and strategy through transnational litigation networks has diffused a new international norm: namely, that an offender has the right to a sentencing hearing in order to present mitigating evidence and receive a lesser punishment, a norm that is increasingly codified in international law and state practice.