How does an idea that forms in the minds of a few activists in one part of the world become a global norm that nearly all states obey? How do human rights ideas spread? This book tracks the diffusion of a single human rights norm: the abolition of the death penalty for child offenders (or juvenile offenders) under the age of 18. The norm against the penalty diffused internationally through law—specifically, criminal law addressing juvenile justice and child offenders, usually those convicted of murder or rape. Detailed case studies and a qualitative, comparative approach to national law and pr ... More

How does an idea that forms in the minds of a few activists in one part of the world become a global norm that nearly all states obey? How do human rights ideas spread? This book tracks the diffusion of a single human rights norm: the abolition of the death penalty for child offenders (or juvenile offenders) under the age of 18. The norm against the penalty diffused internationally through law—specifically, criminal law addressing juvenile justice and child offenders, usually those convicted of murder or rape. Detailed case studies and a qualitative, comparative approach to national law and practice show that children played an important—though little known—role in the process of state consolidation and the building of international order, with the promotion of children as international rights holders the outcome of almost two centuries of activism. Through an innovative synthesis of prominent theories of power and socialization, the books demonstrates that the growth of state control over children and their lives was part of a larger political process by which the liberal state (both paternal and democratic) became the only model of acceptable and legitimate statehood and through which newly minted international institutions would find purpose. From the institutions and legacy of colonialism to the development and promotion of the global child—a collection of related, still changing norms of child welfare and protection—a specifically Western conception of childhood and ideas about children shaped the current international system.