Domestic accountability and non-compliance with international law

Evidence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Bibliographic Data

ID5071901
AuthorsFrancesca Parente (0000-0002-1945-7794, Christopher Newport University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume62
Issue1
Pages119-133
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00223433231200924
OpenAlexW4389509205
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited75

Domestic public preferences often shape leaders' decisions to comply with international legal rulings. Human rights scholars usually assume these preferences favor enforcement and justice. However, just because the public supports human rights does not mean they universally support remedies ordered by international courts. What happens when leaders face competing compliance pressures from an international court and domestic public? I examine this question in the context of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a regional human rights court that operates primarily in Latin America. I argue that non-compliance may sometimes result from democratic leaders adjusting compliance behavior according to public opinion, especially when the implicated actor is popular. In particular, I argue that compliance is a function of proximity to the next presidential election, therefore necessitating greater responsiveness to the public's opinions, and the public's attitudes toward the actor implicated by the ruling. I test my argument on an original dataset of all Inter-American Court rulings implicating the military. I show that if the public does not support the military, the probability of compliance increases closer to an election; however, if the public does support the military, the probability of compliance decreases. My findings suggest the importance of incorporating the public's attitudes into existing models of compliance with international law

Accountability · Argument (complex analysis) · Compliance (psychology) · Context (archaeology) · Democracy · Enforcement · Human rights · International human rights law · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · International Law and Human Rights · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Medicine · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology · Social Psychology

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