Reluctant Abolitionists

Name: Reluctant Abolitionists
Price: 263.65 AUD
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ISBN: 9781009595179

Britain and the End of the Colonial Death Penalty

James M. Campbell (University of Leicester)

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Hardback

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English

Cambridge University Press
05 March 2026

British & Irish history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Slavery & abolition of slavery; Crime & criminology; Legal history

Series: Studies in Legal History

Britain abolished the death penalty for murder in 1965, but many of Britain's last colonies retained capital murder laws until the 1990s. In this book, James M. Campbell presents the first history of the death sentences imposed under British colonial rule in the late twentieth century; the decision-making processes that determined if condemned prisoners lived or died; and the diverse paths to death penalty abolition across the empire. Based on a rich archive of recently released government records, as well as legislative debates, court papers, newspapers and autobiographies, Reluctant Abolitionists examines connections between the death penalty, British politics, decolonisation and the rise of international abolitionist movements. Through analysis of murder trials, clemency appeals, executions and legal reforms across more than 30 British colonies, it reveals the limits of British opposition to the death penalty and the enduring connections between capital punishment and empire.

By: James M. Campbell (University of Leicester)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 664g
ISBN: 9781009595179
ISBN 10: 1009595172
Series: Studies in Legal History
Pages: 370
Publication Date: 05 March 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Tables; Maps; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations of archival sources; Introduction; 1. 'A vast and extended web': the colonial death penalty before and after British abolition; 2. Decolonisation and the royal prerogative of mercy; 3. 'To hang or not to hang?' Clemency and de facto abolition in Hong Kong; 4. The enduring colonial death penalty; 5. 'Cut the noose loose': protest and policy in the late-1970s; 6. 'This dog is not sleeping': Britain, the dependent territories and the death penalty in the 1980s; 7. The last rites of Imperial executions; Epilogue; Appendix: governors of select British overseas territories; Bibliography; Index.

James M. Campbell is Associate Professor of American History at the University of Leicester. His publications include Slavery on Trial: Race, Class and Criminal Justice in Antebellum Richmond, Virginia, Crime and Punishment in African American History, and essays on the death penalty in the Caribbean and the United States.