Killing Kids: The Impact of Domingues V Nevada on the Juvenile Death Penalty as a Violation of International Law

Abstract

This Note examines the debate over the legality of the juvenile death penalty, and concludes that the use of the juvenile death penalty in the United States represents a flagrant transgression of international human rights law. Several forms of international law, including a number of multilateral human rights treaties, customary international law and jus cogens prohibit the execution of children below the age of eighteen. The existence of these contrary legal obligations demands that the United States abandon its vigilante stance and bring its practices into conformity With the greater international community.