Can a United States Treaty Reservation Provide a Sanctuary for the Juvenile Death Penalty?

38 Pages Posted: 7 Jul 2008

See all articles by Constance de la Vega

Constance de la Vega

University of San Francisco School of Law

Jennifer Jean Brown

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: July 2, 2008

Abstract

This article examines the United States' use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders in the context of international human rights. It provides an overview of the development and status of United States law regarding the juvenile death penalty, and it briefly reviews the traditional arguments against the United States death penalty in general, with an emphasis on the application of these arguments to the juvenile death penalty in particular. It then reviews a number of international agreements dealing with the juvenile death penalty, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR"), and it explores the validity of the United States reservation to the ICCPR's prohibition of the juvenile death penalty in relation to international treaties, customary international law and the doctrine of jus cogens. Finally, it reviews international scrutiny of the United States juvenile death penalty laws, and concludes that it will mount until the United States conforms to international norms on this issue.

Keywords: juvenile death penalty, death penalty, international human rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, customary international law, jus cogens doctrine, Convention on the Rights of the Child, capital punishment

Suggested Citation

de la Vega, Constance and Brown, Jennifer Jean, Can a United States Treaty Reservation Provide a Sanctuary for the Juvenile Death Penalty? (July 2, 2008). University of San Francisco Law Review, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1998, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1154805

Constance De la Vega (Contact Author)

University of San Francisco School of Law ( email )

2130 Fulton Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
United States

Jennifer Jean Brown

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
255
Abstract Views
1,377
Rank
218,297
PlumX Metrics