Review - Taking Life Imprisonment Seriously: In National and International Law

• Published date: 24 May 2019
• Date: 24 May 2019

REVIEW

Taking Life Imprisonment Seriously:

In National and International Law

by Dirk van Zyl Smit,

Professor of Criminology Cape Town

Professor of Comparative and International Penal

Law Nottingham.

The Hague, Kluwer Law International 2002,

ISBN 9041117725.

This latest work by South Africa's foremost scholar on sentencing deals in

great depth with life imprisonment and all the issues surrounding it. It starts

in chapter 1 by providing reasons why a clear definition of life imprisonment

is almost impossible, since there are so many avenues through which an

offender might potentially be detained for the rest of his or her life. This is

very briefly followed by an historical overview of life imprisonment. Finally,

chapter 1 considers the various considerations and limits that exist on

justifiable forms and applications of punishment in general, and on life

imprisonment in particular. Notably, prohibitions against the universal

notions of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment are considered, as

well as human dignity, the possibility of rehabilitation and questions of

liberty and due process.

The next three chapters deal in exquisite detail with the law relating to life

imprisonment in three national jurisdictions, namely the United States of

America, England and Wales, and Germany. In each instance the law

permitting the imposition of life imprisonment is considered in some detail,

although the position in the United States is so extensive and complicated by

the large number of different systems, that a full account was not deemed a

viable option. In each instance this description includes a statistical snapshot

of the number of sentences of life imprisonment imposed, the number of

people serving life imprisonment, and an attempt to determine the average

duration of imprisonment actually served by those prisoners who are

released at some point. In each instance this is followed by a consideration of

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(2003) 16 SACJ 197

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