The Abolition of Capital Punishment in the major Countries of Europe.

The present paper deals with the history of abolitionism in the main European states. This essay first introduces the course of abrogation of capital punishment in its Italian cradle, then it details the steps by which the status of this kind of sanction changed in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England and the Russian and Soviet Empires during the past centuries and, chiefly, the past decades. The present article covers both the early results of the abolitionist movement in the countries analysed, and the final cessation of this legal institution by which these states discontinued the practice of capital punishment for good and all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]