Penal law expert to give Howard League lecture on life imprisonment in Scotland

Professor Dirk van Zyl Smit will explore the appropriateness of life imprisonment in Scotland at a lecture hosted by the Howard League next month.

The Life imprisonment: an appropriate ultimate penalty in Scotland? lecture will take place at Edinburgh’s Central Hall on Monday 12 March, 5.30pm.

Professor van Zyl Smit is professor of comparative and international penal law at the University of Nottingham and has been leading a major research study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, on the use of life sentences around the world — the first of its kind to consider the application of the life sentence systematically in comparative context.

The lecture questions whether life sentences from which offenders may never be released are human rights compliant. It also asks what can be done to reduce the number of persons serving life imprisonment by considering what the alternatives could be to life-long imprisonment.

Admission is free for Howard League Scotland members, while tickets for non-member students cost £1 and tickets for other non-members cost £2.

Tickets can be secured via Ticket Source.