Regional Courts, Domestic Politics, and the Struggle for Human Rights

Comparing regional human rights courts in Europe and the Americas, Haglund examines conditions under which regional courts deter rights abuses.

Jillienne Haglund (Author)

9781108702317, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 July 2022

343 pages, 31 b/w illus. 4 maps 50 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.51 kg

Despite substantial growth in past decades, international human rights law faces significant enforcement challenges and threats to legitimacy in many parts of the world. Regional human rights courts, like the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights, represent unique institutions that allow individuals to file formal complaints with an international legal body and render judgments against states. In this book, Jillienne Haglund focuses on regional human rights court deterrence, or the extent to which adverse judgments discourage the commission of future human rights abuses. She argues that regional court deterrence is more likely when the chief executive has the capacity and willingness to respond to adverse regional court judgments. Drawing comparisons across Europe and the Americas, this book uses quantitative data analyses, supplemented with qualitative evidence from many adverse judgments, to explain the conditions under which regional courts deter future rights abuses.

1. Introduction
2. Explaining Rregional Human Rights Court Deterrence
3. Examining Patterns of General Regional Court Deterrence
4. Does the Executive have the Capacity to Respond to Adverse Judgments?
5. Is the Executive Willing to Respond to Adverse Judgments? The Role of Mass Public Pressure
6. Is the Executive Willing to Respond to Adverse Judgments? The Role of Elite Pressure
7. Amplified Regional Court Deterrence: High Executive Capacity and High Executive Eillingness
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], Comparative politics [JPB]