William Schabas's work on the abolition of the death penalty could not be more timely, offering as it does a broad overview of the legal progress in the field over the last fifty years. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed the right to life. In 1966, the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights established that no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of life. It went on to add that in countries where the death penalty has not been abolished, a death sentence can only be pronounced for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime. In 1989, an additional protocol to the Covenant, abolishing the death penalty in peacetime, was adopted. Thus we have moved from the proclamation of a principle to its regulation, and from regulation of that principle to abolition.

European law underwent an evolution parallel to that of the United Nations. The European Convention on Human Rights specified, in 1950, that

The Sixth Protocol to the Convention abolished, in 1982, the death penalty, except in time of war or imminent danger of war.

In the Western hemisphere, a comparable progress took place.