As part of a broader policy agenda promoting more sustainable financial markets, legislative and policy initiatives within the European Union in recent years have explored the activation of micro-prudential requirements for banks and other financial intermediaries with a view to incentivise regulated institutions to change business models and investment patterns and shift funding towards projects and beneficiaries identified as sustainable. This is compatible with traditional regulatory objectives (only) to the extent that regulatory measures try to enhance the sensitivity of existing arrangements vis-à-vis new types of sustainability-related risks, the most obvious example being climate-related risks to the viability and profitability of existing loan and investment portfolios. This chapter assesses the relevant policy initiatives in the light of recent promulgations by international standard-setters, and critically discusses the potential and the functional limits of micro-prudential regulation as a driver towards more sustainable lending – as well as potential repercussions on the existing prudential frameworks.

The Introduction gives a snapshot of the current status of capital punishment around the globe. It gives current statistics from Amnesty International and describes Amnesty International's anti-death penalty campaign in the 1970s that led to the Declaration of Stockholm, which expressed "total and unconditional opposition to the death penalty." The Introduction describes the divide between retentionist and abolitionist countries, highlighting countries that have outlawed capital punishment in their constitutions or through judicial rulings. After detailing how the death penalty was traditionally seen as something other than torture, the Introduction discusses the law's evolving nature--and how the death penalty is increasingly seen as a torturous and cruel punishment that violates human dignity and fundamental human rights. Noting that death sentences are no longer treated as a "lawful sanction" in many locales, the Introduction describes how the U.N. General Assembly has voted on multiple occasions for a global moratorium on executions. The Introduction summarizes the current state of international law as regards capital punishment and previews the book's content.