When the State No Longer Kills: International Human Rights Norms and Abolition of Capital Punishment

196 Pages·2007·0.6 MB·English

by  Sangmin Bae

WHEN THE STATE
NO LONGER KILLS
SUNY SERIES IN HUMAN RIGHTS
Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, editor
WHEN THE STATE
NO LONGER KILLS
International Human Rights Norms
and Abolition of Capital Punishment
SANGMIN BAE
State University of New York Press
Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, ALBANY
© 2007 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
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For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Laurie Searl
Marketing, Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bae, Sangmin, 1971–
When the state no longer kills : international human rights norms and abolition of
capital punishment / Sangmin Bae.
p. cm. — (Suny series in human rights)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7914-7207-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Capital punishment. 2. Human rights. I. Title.
HV8694.B34 2007
364.66—dc22 2006037443
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my parents,
who taught me how to live with passion

CONTENTS
List of Figures and Tables
ix
Foreword
xi
Preface
xiii
One INTRODUCTION: PROHIBITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY
AS A HUMAN RIGHTS NORM
1
International Standards Prohibiting Capital Punishment 1
International Norms in International Relations Research 5
Methodological and Analytical Issues 12
Two UKRAINE
23
The Council of Europe and the Death-Penalty-Free Zone 24
Political Turbulence and Rising Crime Rates 29
Ukraine’s Resistance to the Council of Europe 32
Public Opinion on the Death Penalty Controversy 32
The Process of Enforcing the Council of Europe Norm 34
Conditions for Death Penalty Reform 36
Concluding Remarks 39
Three SOUTH AFRICA
41
Capital Punishment under Apartheid 42
The Abolitionist Movement and the Role of External Donors 45
The Moratorium on Executions 48
Political Transformation and Criminal Society: “Crime is
Out of Control!” 51
The Constitutional Court’s Ruling on the Death Penalty 53
Post–Death Penalty Abolition Years: The Debate Continues 56
Who and What Played the Major Roles? 58
Conclusion: The Politics of Principle 60
CONTENTS
viii
Four SOUTH KOREA
63
Dictatorship, Economic Miracle, and Human Security
(1948–1987) 65
Democratic Transition and the Continuing Use of the
Death Penalty (1987–1997) 69
The Emergence of the Abolitionist Movement 70
Changing Political Conditions for Death Penalty
Abolitionism (1998–Present) 72
The Abolitionist Camp: Catholic Church, Amnesty
International, and Legislators 73
Why Not Abolition Right Now? 77
Concluding Remarks 83
Five UNITED STATES
85
“American Exceptionalism” and International Pressure 87
Do Crime Rates Matter? 91
The Vigilante Tradition 93
Racial Prejudice and Injustice 95
Why More after the 1980s?: The Era of Heightened
Inequality and Punitiveness 96
Anti–Death Penalty Activism 97
Public Support for the Death Penalty: A Constant Variable 99
The Peculiarity of the U.S. Political Institutions 101
Is Political Leadership a Remaining Virtue? 105
Concluding Remarks 106
Six CONCLUSION
109
Ways of Norm Compliance: Ukraine, South Africa,
South Korea, and the United States 110
Conditions for Norm Compliance 114
Causal Mechanisms of Norm Compliance 122
Conclusion: Extending the Argument 124
Notes
127
Bibliography
155
Index
173
FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 4.1 Number of Executions in South Korea, 1970–1997 67
Figure 5.1 Number of Executions in the United States, 1970–2005 89
Figure 5.2 Regional Distribution of Lynchings and Executions 94
Figure 6.1 Causal Mechanisms of Norm Adoption 122–123
Table 1.1 Cases: Different Stages of Norm Compliance 13
Table 1.2 Variables Categorized by Two Axes 14
Table 1.3 Summary of Variables 20
Table 2.1 Council of Europe’s Monitoring Procedure on the
Death Penalty 26
Table 2.2 Criminality in Ukraine, 1972 and 1988–98 30
Table 3.1 South Africa’s Power-Sharing Government 50
Table 6.1 Pathways of Norm Compliance in Four Cases 123
ix