About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


20 Asia-Pac. J. on Hum. Rts. & L. 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/apjur20 and id is 1 raw text is: ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ASIA-PACIFICJOURNAL BRILL THE LAW 20 (2019) 1-59 ONHUAN RIGHTS NIJHOFF brill.com/aphu Political Audiences and the Abolition of Capital Punishment in the Asia Pacific Samantha Bradley School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University samanthafrancesbradley@gmailcom Abstract This article investigates why some states in the Asia Pacific have retained capital pun- ishment, while others have abolished it, either defacto or dejure. In contrast to existing theories, it is theorised that governments conduct cost-benefit calculations consider- ing both domestic support and international pressure for abolition, then formulate their death penalty policy based on the lowest cost scenario. This theory is tested by applying controlled comparison and process tracing analysis to three cases: Cambo- dia, South Korea, and Indonesia. These case studies demonstrate that pressures from domestic and international political audiences are determinative in states' decision- making processes regarding capital punishment. Keywords human rights - capital punishment - political audiences - death penalty - norm diffusion 1 Introduction* A trend towards the abolition of capital punishment is a pivotal recent de- velopment when examining cross-national variations in compliance with international human rights norms in the Asia Pacific region. In 1984, 24 states * Samantha Bradley is an Australian lawyer and researcher with a background working in international criminal law and the NGO sector. She completed this research in 2017 as an honours student under the supervision of Dr Dongwook Kim in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University. Views expressed in this paper her own. © KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2019 DOI:10.1163/15718158-02001001