MACMILLAN The Inter-American Human Rights System: Impact Beyond Compliance (Studies of the Americas)

This volume brings together innovative work from emerging and leading scholars in international law and political science to critically examine the impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS). By leveraging a variety of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches, the contributors assess the impact of the IAHRS on domestic human rights change in Latin America. More specifically, the book provides a nuanced analysis of the System’s impact by examining the ways in which the IAHRS influences domestic actors and political institutions advancing the realisation of human rights. This work will be of interest to students and scholars of human rights and Latin American politics, as well as to those engaged with the nexus of international law and domestic politics and the dynamics of international and regional institutions. Review “A groundbreaking work on assessing the impact of the Inter-American human rights system to meaningfully alter politics and to provoke positive domestic human rights change. The book is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of how the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court of Human Rights have significant and demonstrable positive effects on domestic human rights that go beyond State compliance in individual cases. The book constitutes an invaluable contribution to the understanding of the Inter-American human rights system and serves as a strong critique of the limitations of traditional theories on international human rights compliance.” (Ariel Dulitzky, Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Human Rights Clinic, University of Texas School of Law, USA) “This book is an insightful and informative contribution to the discourse on social change and international law. Editor and author Par Engstrom shows the transformative power of international human rights law in action, while highlighting some of its limitations. Academics, practitioners, and policy makers who study and engage with the Inter-American system will find Impact Beyond Compliance an essential reference, while its approach and analysis will be useful for all who work in international human rights law.” (Viviana Krsticevic, Executive Director of the Center for Justice and International Law, USA) “This book offers an extraordinary contribution for understanding the impact of the IAHRS in the region. Adopting a refined contemporary critical analysis, it focuses on the challenges, perspectives, dilemmas, limits and potentialities of the IAHRS in fostering social change, reconceptualizing how the system matters, the role of different actors and institutions, as well as the impact of regional litigation through transnational activism in the domestic order. It’s an inspiring tool for rethinking the IAHRS and its role in strengthening human rights, democracy and rule of law in the region.” (Flávia Piovesan, Commissioner, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2018-2021), and Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paolo, Brazil) “Today more than ever we need literature able to show what difference human rights law and institutions have made to those they intend to protect, and how their work has helped to establish stronger state institutions able to uphold the rule of law and human rights. This book gives voice not only to academics but also to practitioners who look at multiple dimensions of the work of the system, Commission and Court, across many countries in the region, and even in relation to the United Nations and other regional human rights systems. The result is a set of important reflections that will surely help to shape further thinking on impact and effectiveness of international human rights institutions.” (Clara Sandoval, Director of the Essex Transitional Justice Network (ETJN), School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK) From the Back Cover This book critically examines