First Page
2065
Abstract
In the last thirty years, criminal punishment has emerged as a primary tool in service of the protection of international human rights. The development of the field of international criminal law has transformed mass human rights violations into crimes, and the crowning achievement of the field has been the creation of the International Criminal Court. Human rights tribunals, meanwhile, also have embraced the institutions of the criminal law and, through doctrines such as the due diligence standard, have translated states' obligations under human rights instruments into duties to criminally prosecute and punish. Those who were present at the creation might remark that human rights and criminal law are strange bedfellows. In its earlier incarnations, human rights law primarily sought to protect individuals against the state in its implementation of criminal law. Human rights law requires states to guarantee to individuals who are facing criminal punishment the presumption of innocence, a fair trial within a reasonable amount of time, and the right to an appeal. Moreover, human rights law imposes limits on the acts that states are permitted to criminally punish.
Recommended Citation
Saira Mohamed Professor of Law,,
Criminal Punishment as a Human Right?,
78 Vanderbilt Law Review
2065
(2025)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol78/iss6/10