Judicial Interactions and Human Rights Contestations in Latin America

Author(s):  
Jorge Contesse

Abstract The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is one of the world's most active human rights tribunals. Through an impressive history of case law, the Court has exerted significant influence upon Latin American states. In recent years, however, states and domestic national courts have challenged the Inter-American Court's authority in more complex and potentially more damaging ways than in the past. By exploring how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has expanded its reach upon states, and how states engage in turn, the Article examines ways of interaction that can enhance or debilitate the Court's authority and influence on states. The Article explores recent dissents as a potential mode of resistance, especially when coupled with states' unease towards international adjudication and suggests ways in which the Court may respond to such challenges in order to protect and enhance its authority.

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (55) ◽  
pp. 116-133
Author(s):  
Marcus Aurelio Taborda de Oliveira

Abstract The article, in a theoretical-historiographic perspective, discusses the current trend of studies on the history of education of the senses and sensibilities. It begins with the presentation of the theme "sensibilities" and its presence in different historiographical traditions, showing how this approach in the field of History is not new. Then, in its first part, it discusses the recent arrival of the theme in the debates of History of Education in Latin America. In the second part, it presents and situates a set of monographic studies developed by the Center for Studies on the Education of Senses and Sensibilities - Nupes, FAE/UFMG, in partnership with researchers from Brazil and other countries, discussing some of their basic assumptions. The text concludes by discussing the limits, risks, and scope of the history of education of the senses and sensibilities as a trend that balances between academic fad and the possibility of renovating the consecrated forms of investigating the past and the present of Latin American education.


1959 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Kantor

The election of Rómulo Betancourt as constitutional President of Venezuela for the 1959-1964 term marks a turning point in that country's political evolution and a high point in the tide of reform now sweeping Latin American toward stable constitutional government. The new president of Venezuela and the party he leads, Acción Democrática, represent the same type of reformist movement as those now flourishing in many other countries of Latin America. As a result, dictatorship in the spring of 1959 is confined to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Paraguay. The situation in Haiti is unclear, but in the other sixteen republics the governments are controlled by parties and leaders which are to a greater or lesser degree trying to get away from the past and seem to have the support of their populations in their efforts. This marks a great change from most of the past history of the Latin American Republics in which the population was ruled by dictatorial cliques dedicated to the preservation of a status quo which meant the perpetuation of poverty and backwardness for most of the Latin Americans.


1959 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-599
Author(s):  
David Felix

Industrial growth and chronic, in many cases severe, inflation are two salient features of the past-war economic history of the larger Latin American countries. There is general recognition that the two phenomena are related, at least in the sense that industry has been one of the major recipients of state subsidies and inflationary credit. But beyond this, analysis divides into the usual demand inflation and cost-push categories.


Author(s):  
Alejandro Rodiles

This chapter analyzes “ius constitutionale commune in Latin America” (ICCLA) in light of comparative international law. For the proponents of ICCLA, this represents a common public law of the region that emerges through judicial dialogue among the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and Latin American national courts. This chapter questions this assumption, first by focusing on the ideological and theoretical genesis of this project, which is the product of a trans-regional academic discourse centered on a German conception of European constitutionalism (Gemeineuropäisches Verfassungsrecht). Next, it addresses the main features of the regional judicial dialogue, considering whether it truly reveals a pluralistic conversation, or instead denotes a monologue promoted by the IACHR. It argues that the latter comes closer to the truth, a conclusion that leads to a reconsideration of the pluralistic narrative about ICCLA. This, in turn, raises serious doubts about the emergence of ius commune in Latin America.


1990 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley

Most of the extraordinary waves of terror which have swept many Latin American societies since 1970 have occurred in guerrilla-based insurgencies or even civil wars. Because of the massive body counts produced during these confrontations between revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries based in or linked with a government, human rights organizations have issued a long series of reports about terror—especially that which has been carried out by incumbent regimes and death squads—and which has been supplemented by the exposés of the guerrillas themselves. Amnesty International, the Human Rights group in the Organization of American States (OAS), and Americas Watch have been the major international actors documenting the wave of terror. Many independent national groups, such as El Salvador's “Socorro Juridico” and other human rights organizations linked with church bodies have undertaken that more perilous task at home.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-391
Author(s):  
Matthias Packeiser

The present study deals with the question of whether Latin American states turned towards adjudication and away from arbitration at the beginning of the 20th century. Little has been researched concerning the reasons why Latin American states had a friendly attitude towards this instrument to settle international disputes. This article shall endeavour to find out more about why this was the case. The research focuses on an analysis of the conduct of Latin American countries at the Second Hague Peace Conference and at the Washington Conference (both in 1907). Ensuing developments are taken into consideration as well in order to arrive at the following conclusion: Although the idea of international adjudication was very well received by the Latin American states, and although they were the first to introduce a regional international court of law, they did not turn away from arbitration but continued to use it – in particular in inter-American relations.


Author(s):  
René Urueña

This chapter explores the deep interaction of Latin American constitutions with international law, and international human rights law in particular, as a contribution to the emerging field of “comparative foreign affairs law.” The chapter begins by describing how open constitutional clauses and the case law of domestic courts facilitate such a deep integration of domestic and international law in the region. It then explores the international factors that explain the interaction, focusing on the doctrine of “control of conventionality,” developed by the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The tide in the region, though, might be changing, and the chapter describes some of the incipient resistance that the deep integration of international law in domestic systems seems to be inspiring. The chapter concludes by considering the potential, and limits, of a “foreign relations law” field from the perspective of Latin America.


Author(s):  
Méndez Juan E ◽  
Cone Catherine

This article discusses the lessons that can be learned from the history of the enforcement of human rights law in Latin America. It explains that there were mass human rights violations in the region during the 1970s under military dictatorship and describes how the Latin American communities have adopted the language of international human rights to advance the construction of more just and free societies with accountable governments. It highlights the role of civil society in the gradual process of incorporating human rights norms into the domestic legal systems.


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