The Justice Cascade: The Evolution and Impact of Foreign Human Rights Trials in Latin America

From a political point of view, it would have been easier to try Astiz in 1982 than Pinochet in 1999. Astiz was a mid-level naval officer of a country then at war with Britain. Trying him for human rights violations would have given substance to the British government\u27s rhetoric about the repressive nature of the Argentine regime. Pinochet was a former head of state and current senator-for-life of a country that had supported Great Britain during the Falklands/Malvinas War. This Article examines what changed between 1982 and 1999 that made Pinochet\u27s arrest in Britain possible. We address two main questions: (1) why, in the last two decades of the 20th century, was there a major international norms shift towards using foreign or international judicial processes to hold individuals accountable for human rights crimes; and (2) what difference have foreign judicial processes made for human rights practices in the countries whose governments were responsible for those crimes

The Justice Cascade: The Evolution and Impact of Foreign Human Rights Trials in Latin America

From a political point of view, it would have been easier to try Astiz in 1982 than Pinochet in 1999. Astiz was a mid-level naval officer of a country then at war with Britain. Trying him for human rights violations would have given substance to the British government\u27s rhetoric about the repressive nature of the Argentine regime. Pinochet was a former head of state and current senator-for-life of a country that had supported Great Britain during the Falklands/Malvinas War. This Article examines what changed between 1982 and 1999 that made Pinochet\u27s arrest in Britain possible. We address two main questions: (1) why, in the last two decades of the 20th century, was there a major international norms shift towards using foreign or international judicial processes to hold individuals accountable for human rights crimes; and (2) what difference have foreign judicial processes made for human rights practices in the countries whose governments were responsible for those crimes

International Human Rights Law and Practice in Latin America

Human rights practices in Latin America provide a lens through whichto examine the relationship between international law and domesticpolitics. International human rights norms are expressed in numerouswidely ratified treaties. Many of those norms also are embedded incustomary international law. The number of binding human rights normsincorporated into international or regional law as well as the precisionand delegation of those norms increased significantly between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s. In addition, in the 1970s and 1980s aninternationalhuman rights advocacy network committed to documenting andspotlighting human rights violations,drafting and implementinginternationalhuman rights standards, and pressuring governments toimplement bilateral and multilateral human rights policies emerged.

Human rights prosecutions and autocratic survival

Do human rights prosecutions deter dictatorships from relinquishing power? Advances in the study of human rights show that prosecutions reduce repression in transition countries. However, prosecuting officials for past crimes may jeopardize the prospects of regime change in countries that have not transitioned, namely dictatorships. The creation of the International Criminal Court has further revitalized this debate. This article assesses how human rights prosecutions influence autocratic regime change in neighboring dictatorships. We argue that when dictators and their elite supporters can preserve their interests after a regime transition, human rights prosecutions are less likely to deter them from leaving power. Using personalist dictatorship as a proxy for weak institutional guarantees of posttransition power, the evidence indicates that these regimes are less likely to democratize when their neighbors prosecute human rights abusers. In other dictatorships, however, neighbor prosecutions do not deter regimes from democratizing.This research is supported by NSF-BCS #0904478