The Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Beyond Progressivity

Abstract

Updated in English for 2011 Spanish edition.

This book chapter critically assesses the emerging social rights jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as it has developed to date. It describes the normative framework over which the Court exercises jurisdiction, the complaints procedure it oversees, and the legal obligations that OAS member states assume with respect to the protected rights enshrined in the region's instruments. It then assesses four of the normative axes on which the Court has jurisprudentially relied in protecting social rights and looks to the Court's rich jurisprudence on reparation and supervision of compliance with its decisions. The chapter concludes that the Court's social rights jurisprudence is commendable and requires expansion, but doing so will require the reversal of two troubling, closely-related trends that currently limit the vast potential of the Court to provide full and effective protection for all human rights.

Keywords: international adjudication, human rights, supranational tribunals, inter-American system, social rights, cultural rights, economic rights, justiciability rules