In many jurisdictions today, life imprisonment is the most severe penalty that can be imposed. Despite this, it is a relatively under-researched form of punishment and no meaningful attempt has been made to understand its full human rights implications. This important collection fills that gap by addressing these two key questions: what is life imprisonment and what human rights are relevant to it? These questions are explored from the perspective of a range of jurisdictions, in essays that draw on both empirical and doctrinal research. Under the editorship of two leading scholars in the field, this innovative and important work will be a landmark publication in the field of penal studies and human rights.

Introduction
Dirk Van Zyl Smit, Catherine Appleton and Georgie Benford
Part I: The Challenge of 'Life' in the Americas
1. The Impact of Life Imprisonment on Criminal Justice Reform in the United States
Marc Mauer and Ashley Nellis
2. Life Imprisonment in Latin America
Beatriz López Lorca
Part II: Life without Parole around the World
3. Life without Parole in Australia: Current Practices, Juvenile and Retrospective Sentencing
Kate Fitz-Gibbon
4. Life Imprisonment and Human Rights in Uganda
Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi
5. A New Form of Life Imprisonment for India?
Madhurima Dhanuka
6. An Administrative Procedure for Life Prisoners: Law and Practice of Royal Pardon in the Netherlands
Wiene van Hattum and Sonja Meijer
7. Constitutionalising Life Imprisonment without Parole: The Case of Hungary
Miklós Lévay
8. A Right to Hope? Life Imprisonment in France
Marion Vannier
Part III: Life Imprisonment and the European Convention of Human Rights
9. The Paradox of Reform: Life Imprisonment in England and Wales
Catherine Appleton and Dirk Van Zyl Smit
10. Life Imprisonment in Belgium: Current Human Rights Challenges
Sonja Snacken, Ineke Casier, Caroline Devynck and Diete Humblet
11. Confusingly Compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights: The Release of Life Sentence Prisoners in Ireland
Diarmuid Griffin and Ian O'Donnell
Part IV: Countries without Life Imprisonment
12. Punishment in Portuguese Criminal Law: A Penal System without Life Imprisonment
Inês Horta Pinto
13. The Abolition of Life Imprisonment in Brazil and its Contradictions
Giovanna Maria Frisso
14. Long-term Imprisonment in Latin America
Francisco Javier de León Villalba
Part V: The (Re)introduction of Life Imprisonment
15. Life and Long-Term Imprisonment in the Countries of the Former Yugoslavia
Filip Vojta
16. The Right to Hope for Lifers: An Analysis of Court Judgments and Practice in Poland
Maria Ejchart-Dubois, Maria Nielaczna and Aneta Wilkowska-Plóciennik
17. Long-Term and Life Imprisonment in Spain: Release Procedures and Terrorism
Jon-Mirena Landa Gorostiza
Part VI: Life Imprisonment and Preventive Detention
18. Constitutional Limits on Life Imprisonment and Post-Sentence Preventive Detention in Germany
Axel Dessecker
19. Life without Parole for Preventive Reasons? Lifelong Post-sentence Detention in Switzerland
Anna Coninx
20. Life Imprisonment and Related Institutions in the Nordic Countries
Tapio Lappi-Seppälä

Dirk van Zyl Smit is Professor of Comparative and International Penal Law at the University of Nottingham.
Catherine Appleton is Senior Research Fellow in Law at the University of Nottingham.