Alves & Lixinski: Enforcing International Judgments Domestically: The Case of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Ayla do Vale Alves (Adelaide Univ. - Law) & Lucas Lixinski (UNSW Sydney - Law) have published Enforcing International Judgments Domestically: The Case of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Brill | Nijhoff 2025). Here's the abstract:

This book broaches a hitherto unexplored subject. It is a systematic overview of the domestic implementation or enforcement of Inter-American Court of Human Rights Judgments across all the countries that accept its jurisdiction. This book urges (and allows) us to move beyond the discourse of "influence" of international courts, a discourse that, while helpful in some respects, also has limited usefulness for the victims of human rights violations in judgments. Comprehensive and theoretically sophisticated, this book sheds new light into how human rights law, international courts, and even international law more broadly can in fact be transformative on the ground.

Navarro: The Effectiveness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: The Case of Indigenous Territorial Rights

Gabriela CB Navarro (Federal Univ. of Minas Gerais - Law) has published The Effectiveness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: The Case of Indigenous Territorial Rights (Hart Publishing 2025). Here's the abstract:

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has the most developed jurisprudence on indigenous rights, yet this case law is understudied. This book addresses this gap by exploring the Court and its cases from both the perspective of international law and the legal protection of indigenous territories.

Setting out the network of actors and institutions involved in such litigation, it examines the motivations and constraints in domestic politics affecting international orders (and by extension the impact of the Court). It provides both an important statement on the effectiveness of international tribunals and a fascinating insight into the evolution of indigenous rights.

Report: The legal arguments on the Climate Emergency Advisory Proceedings before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Lucas Carlos Lima (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) and the Stylus Curiarum Research Group have released the report "The legal arguments on the Climate Emergency Advisory Proceedings before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights." The report analyzes the arguments presented in the written and oral observations submitted within the framework of the advisory proceedings on Climate Emergency and Human Rights before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights requested by Chile and Colombia. The study examines the observations presented - ten of which were filed by States, another ten by organs of States, eighteen by organs of international organizations, and two hundred and twenty-seven amici by non-state entities - with a view to identifying the legal arguments put forward before the Inter-American Court. The report can be found here.

Contesse: Implementation of Human Rights Judgments in Latin America

Jorge Contesse (Rutgers Univ. - Law) has posted Implementation of Human Rights Judgments in Latin America (in Time and International Adjudication, Andrea Gattini & Marco Dimetto eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In this Chapter, I explore the process of implementation of human rights judgments in Latin America, a process that is largely judicial, as the task of monitoring implementation rests almost entirely upon the shoulders of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. I address the legal regime of implementation of judgments in the inter-American human rights system and the types of analyses that can be conducted to evaluate how promptly and effectively States comply with the Inter-American Court's judgments. I argue that, rather than a quantitative analysis, we gain more insight into the temporal aspect of implementation by paying attention to States' attitude towards compliance. The discussion is particularly relevant in the context of interactions between States and the Court that elicit pushback and resistance, in some cases, and acceptance and engagement, in others.

von Bogdandy, Piovesan, Ferrer Mac-Gregor, & Morales Antoniazzi: The Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System: Transformations on the Ground

Armin von Bogdandy (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Flávia Piovesan (Pontifical Catholic Univ. of São Paulo), Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor (National Autonomous University of Mexico), & Mariela Morales Antoniazzi (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) have published The Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System: Transformations on the Ground (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). The book is available open access. Here's the abstract:

The Inter-American System of Human Rights (IASHR) is certainly a source of innovation in human rights law and policy. However, uncertainty reigns over its true legal, political, and social effects as many decisions face serious problems of compliance. To better grasp the System's effects, this book broadens the focus from compliance to impact as the key criterion of effectiveness. Thus, The Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System: Transformations on the Ground can reveal the IASHR's deep and multifaceted effects, not least by embedding a common law of human rights.

Outlining the IASHR's historic path and contemporary practice, this book shows legal, political, and social effects with respect to the main problems that trouble the Americas. Though most of these certainly continue to exist, the System is having a transformative impact on them on the ground, though with huge differences between issues and countries. These achievements as well as the variations should be of interest to academics, judges, and policymakers in Latin America as well as other regions undergoing similar stress, such as Central and Eastern Europe or Africa.

The Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System brings together leading scholars in international and constitutional law, social sciences, and international relations to present a systematic and critical analysis of the impact of the IASHR in the various fields of its activity. These include issues of internal conflicts, transition to democracy, rights of vulnerable groups, social rights, the environment, digital rights, and the accountability of private actors. The book also offers evidence-based proposals to further enhance the transformative impact of the Inter-American System that could be taken up by courts and policymakers at the national, Inter-American, and global levels.

Tello Mendoza: Control de convencionalidad y Estado Constitucional de Derecho

Juan Alonso Tello Mendoza (Univ. of Barcelona - Law) has published Control de convencionalidad y Estado Constitucional de Derecho (Tirant 2023). Here's the abstract:

El control de convencionalidad es una doctrina creada por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos a partir de 2006. Desde entonces, el desarrollo de su noción sugiere que la Corte IDH y toda autoridad estatal tienen el deber de oficio de realizar un control entre el llamado canon interamericano (compuesto por los tratados regionales de derechos humanos y los pronunciamientos de la Corte IDH) y todo el ordenamiento jurídico interno, de modo que, de estimarse una incompatibilidad, prevalezca el primero. Dicha figura ha generado un arduo debate político en la academia y los altos tribunales nacionales. En esta obra se explica el control de convencionalidad según es realizado por la Corte IDH, analizando si goza de sólida y suficiente fundamentación jurídica en las fuentes del Derecho Internacional Público. Asimismo, se pasa revista a su aplicación en diez Estados de la Región. Particular atención se presta a las implicancias de tal figura desde las categorías del Estado Constitucional de Derecho y a cómo esta doctrina pretende un tránsito hacia un Estado Convencional de Derecho. El autor argumenta por qué el control de convencionalidad según lo entiende la Corte IDH debe ser repensado para contar con una adecuada y consistente justificación en el Derecho Internacional a la vez de no poner en riesgo los principios basales del Estado Constitucional de Derecho.

Torres Zúñiga: The Inter American Court of Human Rights: The Legitimacy of International Courts and Tribunals

Natalia Torres Zúñiga (Univ. of Oslo - Norwegian Centre for Human Rights) has published The Inter American Court of Human Rights: The Legitimacy of International Courts and Tribunals (Routledge 2022). Here's the abstract:

This book provides a critical legal perspective on the legitimacy of international courts and tribunals. The volume offers a critique of ideology of two legal approaches to the legitimacy of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) that portray it as a supranational tribunal whose last say on human rights protection has a transformative effect on the democracies of Latin America. The book shows how the discussion between these Latin American legal strands mirrors global trends in the study of the legitimacy of international courts related to the use of constitutional analogies and concepts such as the notion of judicial dialogue and the idea of democratic transformation. It also provides an in-depth analysis of how, through the use of those categories, legal experts studying the legitimacy of the IACtHR enact self-validation processes by making themselves the principal agents of transformation. These self-validation processes work as ideological apparatuses that reproduce and entrench the mindset that the legal discipline is a driving force of change in itself. Further, the book shows how profiling the Court as an agent of transformation diverts attention from the ways in which it has pursued a particular view of human rights and democracy in the region that creates and reproduces relations of inequality and domination. Rather than discarding the IACtHR, this book aims to de-centre the focus away from formal legal institutions, engaging with the idea that ordinary people can mobilise and define the content of law to transform their lives and territories.

Hennebel & Tigroudja: The American Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary

Ludovic Hennebel (Aix-Marseille Université - Law) & Hélène Tigroudja (Aix-Marseille Université - Law) have published The American Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

The American Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary is the first comprehensive and systematic article-by-article commentary of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) in English. This book offers an exhaustive and critical analysis of each of the 82 articles of the Convention, covering the substantive elements of the rights and freedoms protected, as well as institutional and procedural aspects. Each chapter contains an introduction and a comparative perspective of the provision commented on; a review of the drafting history of the provision; and a critical commentary on the interpretation of the provision in light of the rich case-law of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Symposium: Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos en el siglo XXI / Inter-American System of Human Rights in the 21st Century

The latest issue of the International Journal of Constitutional Law (Vol. 19, no. 4, October 2021) contains a symposium on "Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos en el siglo XXI / Inter-American System of Human Rights in the 21st Century." Contents include:

• Symposium: Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos en el siglo XXI / Inter-American System of Human Rights in the 21st Century
• Ximena Fuentes Torrijo, La evolución de la relación normativa entre el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos y los sistemas jurídicos nacionales / The evolution of the normative relationship between the Interamerican System of Human Rights and national jurisdictions
• Carlos Bernal, Tres desafíos de legitimidad del Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos / Three legitimacy challenges to the InterAmerican System of Human Rights
• Alexandra Huneeus, ¿A quién le pertenece el Sistema Interamericano? Llamado a nuevas perspectivas sociojurídicas en la investigación académica / To whom does the Interamerican System belong? A call for new socio-legal perspectives
• Roberto Gargarella, La Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y la “conversación entre iguales” / The Inter-American Human Rights Court and the “conversation among equals”
• Mariela Morales Antoniazzi, El mandato transformador del Sistema Interamericano como respuesta a la pandemia a la luz del test democrático / The Inter-American System’s transformative mandate as a response to the pandemic in light of the democratic test
• Elizabeth Salmón, La permanente necesidad de un mecanismo transparente de elección de miembros de la CIDH y la Corte IDH / The permanent need for a transparent mechanism for the election of the members of the IACHR and the IACtHR
• Francisca Pou Giménez, La igualdad sustantiva interamericana: Avances y debates pendientes / Inter-American substantive equality: Steps forward and pending debates
• Juana Acosta-López & Ana Idárraga, Retos de la jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en la categorización de conductas como crímenes internacionales / Challenges of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ jurisprudence in the categorization of conducts as international crimes
• Jorge Contesse, Autoridad y disenso en la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos / Authority and dissent in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Bailliet: The Construction of the Customary Law of Peace: Latin America and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Cecilia M. Bailliet (Univ. of Oslo - Law) has published The Construction of the Customary Law of Peace: Latin America and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021). Here's the abstract:

This thought-provoking book explores the emerging construction of a customary law of peace in Latin America and the developing jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It traces the evolution of peace as both an end and a means: from a negative form, i.e. the absence of violence, to a positive form that encompasses equality, non-discrimination and social justice, including gendered perspectives on peace.

Cecilia M. Bailliet offers an overview of the normative and institutional development of peace in Latin America, before examining the heterogeneous iterations of peace within Latin American constitutions and the pluralistic views of current and former judges in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The book argues that these national variants should be in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights and related instruments as a minimum framework, and should be interpreted in pursuit of the pro homine principle, in which the most favourable law is applied to benefit individuals regardless of its origin or status. It also presents an overview of the historic protest marches of 2019 and the phenomenon of oppressive peace tactics by the State.

Gonzalez Ocantos & Sandholtz: International Human Rights Courts and Sources of Resilience: The Case of the Inter-American System

Ezequiel Gonzalez Ocantos (Univ. of Oxford - Politics and International Relations) & Wayne Sandholtz (Univ. of Southern California - International Relations) have posted International Human Rights Courts and Sources of Resilience: The Case of the Inter-American System. Here's the abstract:

International courts (ICs) with human rights mandates have recently faced instances of backlash, aiming to curb their authority. But human rights ICs continue to function with their competences largely intact. A crucial source of IC resilience is embeddedness in domestic institutions and actors. Taking cues from research on the functioning of ICs, we argue that ICs will be resilient – able to maintain their competences and authority in the face of backlash – to the extent that they are embedded in domestic "legal complexes." Our framework identifies key sites of embeddedness and stresses the importance of synergies between them: 1) incorporation of treaties into domestic law; 2) independent courts; 3) acceptance and use of IC jurisprudence by domestic judiciaries; 4) strong national human rights institutions; 5) incorporation of international law into legal training and research; and 6) presence of NGOs that rely on ICs. Empirically, the paper explores resilience in the Inter-American System of Human Rights. First, we discuss and map the state of each source of resilience across Latin America. Second, we show how the activation of sources of resilience helped preserve the integrity of Inter-American rights institutions during backlash orchestrated by several countries between 2011 and 2014.

Stöckle: Guarantees of Non-Repetition: Die Anordnung struktureller Reformen durch den Inter-Amerikanischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte

Philipp Stöckle has published Guarantees of Non-Repetition: Die Anordnung struktureller Reformen durch den Inter-Amerikanischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte (Duncker & Humblot 2021). Here's the abstract:

Der Inter-Amerikanische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte (IAGMR) trifft unter dem Titel der »Guarantees of Non-Repetition« weitreichende Anordnungen, mit denen er auf strukturelle Menschenrechtsprobleme in den seiner Gerichtsbarkeit unterliegenden Staaten Lateinamerikas reagiert. Die Anordnungen verpflichten zu Reformen auf legislativer, administrativer oder institutioneller Ebene, deren Umsetzung der Gerichtshof selbst überwacht. Als eine Maßnahme, die sich nicht den traditionellen Rechtsfolgenanordnungen internationaler Gerichte zuweisen lässt, werfen die Guarantees of Non-Repetition des IAGMR zahlreiche formell- wie materiellrechtliche Fragen auf. Die Arbeit untersucht die Theorie und Praxis der Guarantees of Non-Repetition und geht dabei besonders auf die Kompetenz des IAGMR zur Anordnung struktureller Reformen ein.

Monteiro de Matos: Indigenous Land Rights in the Inter-American System: Substantive and Procedural Law

Mariana Monteiro de Matos (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology) has published Indigenous Land Rights in the Inter-American System: Substantive and Procedural Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2021). Here's the abstract:

Rights to their traditional lands and resources are essential to the survival of indigenous peoples. They have been formulated and advanced in the most progressive way by the Inter-American system of human rights protection. In this book, Mariana Monteiro de Matos analyzes, in detailed and comprehensive inquiry, the pertinent jurisprudence of the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights. She identifies three distinct waves of decision regarding the objects of ownership or possession, the rights associated, and the holders of the rights. Originally, the book also offers a profound analysis of corollary procedural law.

Burgorgue-Larsen: Les 3 Cours régionales des droits de l’homme in context : La justice qui n'allait pas de soi

Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne - Law) has published Les 3 Cours régionales des droits de l’homme in context : La justice qui n'allait pas de soi (Pedone 2020). Here’s the abstract:

Cet ouvrage a pour ambition de présenter la création et le fonctionnement des 3 Cours régionales des droits de l’homme qui se trouvent à Strasbourg, San José et Arusha. Incontestablement éloignées par un ensemble d’éléments d’ordre politique, juridique et sociologique, ces trois juridictions sont pourtant reliées par des éléments matériels et des questionnements communs indiscutables.

Matériellement, leurs textes de références sont arrimés à la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme du 10 décembre 1948. Les préambules respectifs de la Convention de sauvegarde, de la Convention américaine et de la Charte africaine insèrent, en effet, le Régionalisme dans le cadre plus général de l’Universalisme. Quant aux questionnements qui les traversent, ils sont marqués de façon irréductible par des dynamiques convergentes. Les 3 Cours doivent s’assurer, en permanence, de l’acceptation par les Etats, tant de leur existence que des lignes majeures de leur jurisprudence ; doivent inciter aux transformations de leurs systèmes respectifs afin qu’ils puissent s’adapter à différents types de contraintes ou à l’inverse freiner toute tentative d’affaiblissement de leur office ; trouver l’équilibre entre la simple « sauvegarde » des droits et libertés d’un côté et leur « développement » de l’autre, en ayant en ligne de mire les principes fondateurs de leur office et la réparation des préjudices subis par les victimes.

Comparer de façon dynamique les mécanismes de la garantie régionale des droits de l’homme, en utilisant les outils de la science juridique, mais également en mobilisant les ressources de l’histoire, la science politique et la sociologie, permet de rappeler que la Justice des droits de l’homme ne va pas de soi. En dépit de l’extraordinaire développement du droit international des droits de l’homme après le « moment 45 », la garantie régionale n’a jamais été une option politique naturelle pour les Etats. Les 3 Cours sont nées dans la douleur, ont évolué en ordre dispersé, et n’ont de cesse de remplir leur mission de protection dans des contextes politiques souvent complexes où les souveraines puissances ne se laissent jamais aisément brider.

Kunz: Richter über internationale Gerichte? Die Rolle innerstaatlicher Gerichte bei der Umsetzung der Entscheidungen von EGMR und IAGMR

Raffaela Kunz (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has published Richter über internationale Gerichte? Die Rolle innerstaatlicher Gerichte bei der Umsetzung der Entscheidungen von EGMR und IAGMR (Springer 2020). Here's the abstract:

Das Open-Access-Buch untersucht am Beispiel des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte (EGMR) und des Interamerikanischen Menschenrechtsgerichtshofs (IAGMR), welche Rolle innerstaatliche Gerichte bei der Umsetzung internationaler Entscheidungen wahrnehmen. Wann sind sie bereit ihre Pendants in Straßburg bzw. San José bei der Umsetzung ihrer Entscheidungen zu unterstützen und diese gleichsam unmittelbar „anzuwenden“, und wo ziehen sie Grenzen und rote Linien? Was sind die Probleme, die ihnen begegnen, und befinden sich Gerichte tatsächlich im Wandel hin zu einer defensiveren und weniger völkerrechtsfreundlichen Haltung, wie einige jüngere Beispiele vermuten lassen?

Das Werk widmet sich der Frage, welche Wirkungen innerstaatliche Gerichte bereit sind, den Entscheidungen der Menschenrechtsgerichte zukommen zu lassen – und zwar genau dann, wenn sich das innerstaatliche Recht nicht dazu äußert. Es zeigt auf, dass hinter der vermeintlich technischen Ausgangsfrage fundamentale Fragen verfassungsrechtlicher Natur stehen und sich am Beispiel der Menschenrechtsgerichte einige der zentralen Schwierigkeiten und Probleme zeigen, wie sie beim Zusammenspiel von Rechtsordnungen in Zeiten globalen Regierens entstehen.

Tigre: Inter-American Court of Human Rights Recognizes the Right to a Healthy Environment

Maria Antonia Tigre (Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment) has posted an ASIL Insight on Inter-American Court of Human Rights Recognizes the Right to a Healthy Environment.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: The American Convention on Human Rights and its New Interlocutors

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on "The American Convention on Human Rights and its New Interlocutors." The symposium includes an introduction by Jorge Contesse and Alexandra Huneeus and contributions by Ximena Soley, Rene Urueña, Paulina García-Del Moral, Par Engstrom, Jorge Contesse, and Alexandra Huneeus.

von Bogdandy: The Transformative Mandate of the Inter-American System – Legality and Legitimacy of an Extraordinary Jurisgenerative Process

Armin von Bogdandy (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has posted The Transformative Mandate of the Inter-American System – Legality and Legitimacy of an Extraordinary Jurisgenerative Process. Here's the abstract:

The American Convention on Human Rights has become a cornerstone of Latin American transformative constitutionalism. Worldwide, the Convention is perhaps the most important international instrument of this nature. The article explains how the Inter-American system received its mandate for supporting transformative constitutionalism and provides a glance into its social legitimacy today. It will show the common law of human rights it has developed and study the safeguards for its legitimate exercise. Lastly, it will sketch yardsticks to assess the system’s success and end with a note on the value of critique.

Kunz: Judging International Judgments Anew? The Human Rights Courts Before Domestic Courts

Raffaela Kunz (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has posted Judging International Judgments Anew? The Human Rights Courts Before Domestic Courts (European Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In recent times, instances of contestation of the ECtHR and the IACtHR make headlines, and in many of these cases domestic courts play a role by refusing to follow the human rights courts or even declaring their judgments to be unconstitutional. This paper undertakes an in-depth analysis of these instances of judicial resistance and puts them into context. This shows that domestic courts, even though originally not having been allocated this role, have become important ‘compliance partners’ of the human rights courts and now play an important and autonomous role in the implementation of their judgments. At the same time, they act as ‘gatekeepers’ and limit their effects in the domestic order. Recent cases even suggest a turn to a less open and more national self-perception of domestic courts. While this to some extent reflects the multiple – and sometimes conflicting – roles domestic courts perform at the intersection of legal orders, the paper argues that the open and flexible stance many domestic courts take when faced with international judgments is better suited to cope with the complex and plural legal reality than systematically judging anew on matters already decided by the human rights courts.

Contesse: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Inter-American Human Rights Law

Jorge Contesse (Rutgers Univ. - Law) has published Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Inter-American Human Rights Law (North Carolina Journal of International Law, Vol. 44, no. 2, p. 353, May 2019). Here's the abstract:

Sexual orientation and gender identity are legally-protected categories in international human rights law and in the law of many States. For the past two decades, States, regional, and the universal human rights systems have expanded the understanding of anti-discrimination law in ways that to many seemed unexpected. Along with the recognition of sexual orientation as a prohibited ground of discrimination, gender identity has also become a legally significant concept for human rights law.

In Latin America, a region traditionally labeled as socially conservative, sexuality laws have also undergone unprecedented changes. Such legal developments cannot be understood without an examination of the role of Latin America’s human rights court—the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This Article discusses the development of sexual orientation and gender identity law by looking at the decisions of the Inter-American Court: Atala and Daughters v. Chile; Duque v. Colombia; Flor Freire v. Ecuador; and Advisory Opinion OC 24-17, concerning same-sex marriage and right to name change. The impact of these decisions demonstrates the quick nature in which the idea of sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected category has changed and developed in a short period of time.