Shocks the conscience is a phrase used as a legal standard in the United States and Canada.
"[1] In US law, the phrase typically describes whether or not the due process requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution has been met.
[3][4] The term is also used in some jurisdictions as a means to determine whether a jury award is out of line with the underlying civil wrong; a jury award can be overturned on appeal if, by its amount relative to the underlying civil wrong, it "shocks the conscience".
A court may look at the justice system of another country, and disregarding "finicky" requirements of fundamental justice in Canada, may consider some potential punishments in other countries so outrageous that a person should not be put at risk by the extraditing government.
The measure was used in United States v Burns (2001) to find that the possibility of execution would shock the conscience.