Daly: The End of Law's Ambition: Human Rights Courts, Democratisation and Social Justice

Tom G. Daly (Univ. of Edinburgh - Law) has posted The End of Law's Ambition: Human Rights Courts, Democratisation and Social Justice. Here's the abstract:

In recent years regional human rights courts have been increasingly viewed, and sought to act, not only as dispensers of individual justice but also as engines of wholesale societal transformation in young democracies. Yet, while various scholars appear to present these courts as key actors in successful democratisation processes and the pursuit of social justice, the true reality appears less positive. In particular, a recent article by Alexandra Huneeus raises serious concerns regarding the legitimacy and effectiveness of regional human rights courts’ ambitious attempts to effect ‘structural reform’ at the State level. This paper builds on Huneeus’ critique by interrogating the claims made for regional human rights courts as agents of democratisation and social justice, and by locating these claims and her critique within a wider conceptual, historical, institutional and comparative context. In doing so, the paper argues that the expansion of these courts’ ambitions forms just part of a century-long constitutional story that has pushed law’s transformational ambitions to its limits, and that this increase in ambition appears to raise acute dangers for regional human rights courts when viewed against wider trends.