Recent landmark judicial decisions by diverse national and international tribunals have shifted the focus of the death penalty debate from the right-to-life issue to the universal human rights norm prohibiting cruel treatment and torture. This seminal volume reviews the history of the philosophical and legal interpretations of this fundamental norm, and examines the relationship of contemporary human rights law to capital punishment litigation.

Author William A. Schabas argues that cruel treatment and torture are prohibited by virtually all contemporary international human rights instruments and by most national constitutions or bills of rights. Based on an in-depth analysis of capital punishment case law, he explains why the incompatibility of the death penalty with the prohibition of cruel treatment has emerged as a major issue in rulings, declarations, and covenants by the world's courts, commissions, and committees.

Schabas pays special attention to the ways in which the world's courts are grappling with the issue of implementing capital punishment. In particular, he examines judgments by national and international tribunals declaring that the method of execution and death row incarceration breach the norm prohibiting cruel treatment and torture.