Sul valore deterrente della proibizione assoluta della pena di morte per gravi crimini internazionali nel marco dello Statuto di Roma della Corte Penale Internazionale

This paper analyses how the absolute prohibition of the death penalty, which has gradually become established as a rule of customary international law, can apply to serious international crimes. To this end, we will analyse the debate on the absolute prohibition of this punishment and the possibility of the emergence of a jus cogens norm providing for its abolition. We shall examine the punishable penalties as set out in the Court's founding treaty, in particular Article 80. We will conclude that the exclusion of capital punishment from the Rome Statute would be part of a broader abolitionist trend that has consolidated internationally; nevertheless, from a combined analysis of the practice of states and the provisions of the treaty, the choice of the penalties to be imposed would remain the prerogative of states, undermining the real possibility of consolidating a new imperative norm of International Law.