Sanchez: Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts

Maria A. Sanchez (Colorado College - Political Science) has published Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts (Cornell Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

In Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts, Maria A. Sanchez tackles a central tension in global governance: how international human rights courts balance their mandates with the imperative to respect national sovereignty. Despite having similar mandates, the world's three regional human rights courts—the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights—interpret their authority differently, leading to uneven regional enforcement of global human rights principles.

Maria A. Sanchez traces how the geopolitical dynamics of each court's founding moments have manifested in contemporary disparities across the courts' jurisprudences—focusing on disputes involving freedom of expression, personal integrity rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. Her findings expose a paradox: the courts that were founded in the most inhospitable environments for human rights have ended up asserting the most expansive authority over governments.

Deeply researched and insightful, Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts speaks to when and how international institutions can leverage authority to intervene in domestic affairs.

Vidigal: Adjudicating over Anarchy: Judicial Remedies, Compliance, and Enforcement in International Law

Geraldo Vidigal (Univ. of Amsterdam) has published Adjudicating over Anarchy: Judicial Remedies, Compliance, and Enforcement in International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

Geraldo Vidigal thoroughly examines the judicial powers of international courts and tribunals and how these powers are used in practice. Without access to state-backed enforcement measures, international adjudicators must rely on their authority to influence real-world outcomes. The book reviews, and offers a comprehensive theory for, the various social mechanisms that explain why and how international judicial pronouncements affect the behaviour of states, influencing the views of individuals within states as well as changing states' mutual expectations of cooperative and sanction-worthy behaviour. The book considers how judicial remedies can induce compliance by targeting specific areas of disagreement, interpreting obligations, declaring violations, and establishing how wrongdoer states must offset unlawful injury. An often untapped type of remedy relies on the ability of courts to determine permissible responses to breach: what measures other actors may take to respond to violations, compelling wrongdoers to comply with their obligations and provide redress for injury.