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

Part treatise, part worldwide empirical investigation, and part normative argument, Life Imprisonment is a tour de force. It shines bright light on a legislatively prescribed and judicially imposed sentence that, remarkably, has drawn practically no scholarly attention. Until now. For the foreseeable future this book will stand as the definitive source of information on and critique of the most serious punishment practically all countries regularly impose.

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

Part treatise, part worldwide empirical investigation, and part normative argument, Life Imprisonment is a tour de force. It shines bright light on a legislatively prescribed and judicially imposed sentence that, remarkably, has drawn practically no scholarly attention. Until now. For the foreseeable future this book will stand as the definitive source of information on and critique of the most serious punishment practically all countries regularly impose.

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

Part treatise, part worldwide empirical investigation, and part normative argument, Life Imprisonment is a tour de force. It shines bright light on a legislatively prescribed and judicially imposed sentence that, remarkably, has drawn practically no scholarly attention. Until now. For the foreseeable future this book will stand as the definitive source of information on and critique of the most serious punishment practically all countries regularly impose.