Dirk van Zyl Smit - Life Imprisonment and Human Rights

LIFE IMPRISONMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS

In many jurisdictions today, life imprisonment is the most severe penalty that can be imposed. Despite this, it is a relatively under-researched form of punishment and no meaningful attempt has been made to understand its full human rights implications. This important collection fills that gap by addressing these two key questions: what is life imprisonment and what human rights are relevant to it? These questions are explored from the perspective of a range of jurisdictions, in essays that draw on both empirical and doctrinal research. Under the editorship of two leading scholars in the field, this innovative and important work will be a landmark publication in field of penal studies and human rights.

Oati International Series in Law and Society

A SERIES PUBLISHED FOR THE OATI INSTITUTE

FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW

General Editors

Rosemary Hunter David Nelken

Founding Editors

William L F Felstiner Eve Darian-Smith

Board of General Editors

Carlos Lugo, Hostos Law School, Puerto Rico

Jacek Kurczewski, Warsaw University, Poland

Marie-Claire Foblets, Leuven University, Belgium

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For the complete list of titles in this series, see

Oati International Series in Law and Society link at

www.hartpub.co.uk/books/series.asp

Life Imprisonment and
Human Rights

Edited by

Dirk van Zyl Smit and Catherine Appleton

Oati International Series in Law and Society

A SERIES PUBLISHED FOR THE OATI INSTITUTE
FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW

OXFORD AND PORTLAND, OREGON
2016

Hart Publishing

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First published 2016

The Editors

The Editors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
to be identified as Authors of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
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occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any statement in it can be accepted
by the authors, editors or publishers.

All UK Government legislation and other public sector information used in the work is Crown
Copyright . All House of Lords and House of Commons information used in the work is Parliamentary
Copyright . This information is reused under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 (http://
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3) excepted where otherwise stated.

All Eur-lex materials used in the work is European Union, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/, 19982015.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN:HB:978-1-50990-220-0

ePDF:978-1-50990-222-4

ePub:978-1-50990-223-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Van Zyl Smit, Dirk, editor. | Appleton, Catherine, editor.

Title: Life imprisonment and human rights / edited by Dirk van Zyl Smit and Catherine Appleton.

Description: Oxford ; Portland, Oregon : Hart Publishing, an imprint of Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2016. | Series: Oati international series in law and society |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016041046 (print) | LCCN 2016041335 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509902200
(hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781509902231 (Epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Life imprisonment.

Classification: LCC K5105.5 .L54 2016 (print) | LCC K5105.5 (ebook) | DDC 345/.0773dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016041046

Series: Oati International Series in Law and Society

Typeset by Compuscript Ltd, Shannon

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The idea for this book emerged during a planning meeting in February 2014, in the very first week of our research project on Life Imprisonment Worldwide. This project, which has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2013-369), has allowed us for the past two years to focus our attention on a wide range of issues relating to life imprisonment. We thank the Trust for this privilege.

The Oati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) accepted our bid for a workshop that would enable us to bring together a dream team of scholars from around the world to reflect on life imprisonment and human rights, and present first versions of the chapters that make up the bulk of this book. In Oati, the IISL provided us with logistical and administrative support and made our stay in the Basque country a very pleasant experience. We would like to mention in particular its coordinator, Malen Gordoa Mendizabal for making the arrangements on behalf of the IISL, and Georgie Benford, then a researcher on the Life Imprisonment Worldwide project, for co-ordination from our side.

Our thanks go to the team at Hart/Bloomsbury Publishing for copyediting and producing this book. Thank you to our contributing authors who patiently and promptly answered our many queries. In the process they taught us great deal about the intricacies of life imprisonment around the world, which we would not have learnt about otherwise.

Finally, we are particularly thankful to Ricky Rntsch who assisted greatly with the technical editing of what was inevitably a very complex manuscript.

Dirk van Zyl Smit and Catherine Appleton
Nottingham, 29 June 2016

Catherine Appleton