Discerning Penal Values and Judicial Decision Making: The Case of Whole Life Sentencing in Europe and the United States of America

Abstract

Abstract Interpretive policy analysis has shown the need for multifactorial accounts of the influences on penal policy and its underlying penal values. To date, it has focused largely on political and administrative decision making. This article argues that judicial decisions interpreting the compliance of penal policies with the constitutional and legal frameworks applicable in a state must also be considered when seeking to discern the nature of approaches to penal policy. The article posits that judicial decisions are important and useful indicators of penal values. To illustrate the point, the article examines the approaches of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of the United States to whole life sentencing. By exploring the differences in penal values between Europe and the United States of America through the prism of judicial decisions, the article considers the possibilities and limits offered by examinations of judicial action as sources of understanding of penal values.

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