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This paper examines the role of international law and norms in shaping international law regarding the death penalty for child offenders under the age of 18. Drawing principally on the archives of Amnesty International USA in Boulder, Colorado and the University of Minnesota?s human rights library in Minneapolis as well as other primary and secondary legal sources, the paper will present the history of the norm abolishing the death penalty for child offenders. This inquiry will include the sudden international cascade of abolition in the 1960s and 1970s as well the concerted activism responsible for achieving compliance with international norms and law regarding the death penalty and children in the last two decades. By contextualizing two pivotal cases, the United States and India, within the norm?s lifecycle, the study will analyze how international law shapes national law and policy regarding children and justice. Through the theories of constructivism, sociological institutionalism and international law, it will investigate domestic versus international sources of law including the role of emulation, international pressure, and social movements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]