Abstract

Do regional human rights courts influence respect for rights? Beyond providing remedy for individual human rights abuse, case outcomes help frame potential social mobilization by setting standards and raising the rights consciousness of civil society actors. The expectation of mobilization can increase the government’s costs of flouting the court’s rulings. We argue that an enabling domestic environment characterized by two features increases government expectation of mobilization following regional court litigation. First, a robust civil society creates strong horizontal ties between potential mobilizing groups. Second, a national human rights institution (NHRI) creates vertical ties that both transfer information down from the court to civil society; and transfer demands up from civil society to political elites in position to make stronger human rights policy. Using data for all Council of Europe countries from 1980 to 2012, we find European Court of Human Rights litigation associated with higher respect for rights in an enabling domestic environment characterized by strong civil society and the presence of a NHRI.

中文翻译：

---

从诉讼到权利：欧洲人权法院案

摘要

区域人权法院会影响对权利的尊重吗？案件结果除了提供针对个人人权侵害的补救措施外，还通过制定标准和提高民间社会行为者的权利意识，帮助制定潜在的社会动员框架。动员的期望会增加政府违反法院裁决的成本。我们认为，具有两个特征的有利的国内环境提高了政府对地区法院诉讼后动员的期望。首先，强大的公民社会在潜在的动员团体之间建立了牢固的横向联系。其次，国家人权机构（NHRI）建立了纵向联系，两者都将信息从法院转移到了民间社会。并将需求从公民社会转移到政治精英中，以制定更强有力的人权政策。使用1980年至2012年欧洲委员会所有国家/地区的数据，我们发现欧洲人权法院的诉讼与在以强大的公民社会和国家人权机构的存在为特征的有利国内环境中对权利的更高尊重有关。