Investigation on death penalty

Nowadays, when the discussion about capital punishment is becoming more and more sharp, a republication of a work on this topic written more than 130 years ago by the prominent Russian lawyer and theorist of jurisprudence Alexander Kistiakovskii (1833-1885) is very opportune. The book was his thesis for a master’s degree defended at the Kiev University in 1867. His investigation is based mainly on historical analysis of its connections with the social and intellectual development of humanity from primordial antiquity to modern times, from nearly universal application of the death penalty for minor crimes to its progressive limitation and to the first attempts of its total abolition. The author shows how this process was influenced by a general mitigation of customs, and how both political revolutions and reaction were leading to the growth of death penalty cases. Richness of utilized historical material and detailed scrutiny of all the arguments makes this book very interesting today. This book is also an important landmark in the history of Russian liberalism.