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Divided governmental structure and state compliance with international human rights law: A reputation-based approach
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2021
Abstract
Previous research has analysed a range of domestic stakeholders that make national governments’ commitments to international human rights law credible, including an independent judiciary, legislative veto players, political opposition groups, and non-governmental organizations. But how do the power dynamics within the government affect state compliance with international human rights law? Building on the basic understanding that international human rights law needs to pass through domestic political and administrative processes before it can be implemented on the ground, this article articulates a reputation-based theoretical framework to explain how the lack of reputational mechanisms at the local level and national leaders’ shifting of blame for non-compliance to sub-national officials and the internal governance structure – two salient characteristics in a decentralized political system – make international human rights law less effective. A case study of US compliance with Article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations sheds light on how international reputational concerns interact with divided authority structure to shape national leaders’ and subnational authorities’ policy responses to the enforcement of international human rights standards.
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Footnotes
*
This project has been supported by the Purdue Research Foundation Research Grant and the Ludwig Kruhe Fellowship. Earlier versions of this article have been presented at the Annual Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, and the Purdue Sears Panel. For valuable feedback, I thank Ann Marie Clark, Dara Kay Cohen, Rosalee A. Clawson, Kyle Haynes, Aaron M. Hoffman, Ñusta Carranza Ko, Cherie Maestas, James A. McCann, Thomas Mustillo, Swati Srivastava, Eric N. Waltenburg, S. Laurel Weldon, Dwayne Woods, and Kuan-Sheng Wu. All errors are my own.
References
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56 Similar to the distinction between national leaders and local authorities in the chance of being put under the spotlight of naming and shaming, research on corporate social responsibility has shown that activist groups are more likely to target larger, influential firms and those that produce branded products. See P. Christmann et al., ‘Globalization and the Environment: Strategies for International Voluntary Environmental Initiatives’, (2002) 16(3) The Academy of Management Review 121; J. R. Hendry, ‘Taking Aim at Business’, (2006) 45(1) Business & Society 47; K. Rehbein et al., ‘Understanding Shareholder Activism: Which Corporations are Targeted?’, (2004) 43(3) Business & Society 239; T. Bartley and C. Child, ‘Shaming the Corporation’, (2014) 79(4) American Sociological Review 653. Studies have also shown that firms that place more value on their brands are more likely to respond to activist requests. See D. L. Spar and L. T. La Mure, ‘The Power of Activism: Assessing the Impact of NGOs on Global Business’, (2003) 45(3) California Management Review 78; B. G. King, ‘A Political Mediation Model of Corporate Response to Social Movement Activism’, (2008) 53(3) Administrative Science Quarterly 395.
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76 Upon the Mexican government’s request for an advisory opinion about the interpretation of foreign nationals’ right to consular access and assistance in death penalty cases, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in 1999 that ‘Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations endows a detained foreign national with individual rights that are the counterpart to the host State’s correlative duties.’ See Advisory Opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: The Right to Information on Consular Assistance in the Framework of the Guarantees of the Due Process of Law (OC-16/99), para. 84.
77 In a resolution (E/CN.4/RES/2001/68) adopted on 25 April 2001 concerning the question of death penalty, the UN Commission on Human Rights urges all states that have still kept capital punishment to ‘observe the Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty and to comply fully with their international obligations, in particular with those under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations’.
78 See Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions: Mission to the United States of America (E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.3), para. 121.
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84 See Whitaker, supra note 82.
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87 Breard v. Netherlands, 949 F. Supp. 1255 (E.D. Va. 1996).
88 Ibid.
89 S. Dest, ‘Federal Habeas Corpus and State Procedural Default: An Abstention-Based Interest Analysis’, (1989) (56) University of Chicago Law Review 263.
90 A. N. Bishop, ‘The Unenforceable Rights to Consular Notification and Access in the United States: What’s changed Since the LaGrand Case?’, (2002) 25 Houston Journal of International Law 1, at 18. Also see Memorial of the Republic of Paraguay, 9 October 1998, available at www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/99/099-19981009-WRI-01-00-EN.pdf.
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid.
93 J. Quigley et al., The Law of Consular Access: A Documentary Guide (2010), 138.
94 Ibid., at 139. Quote from Statement by Governor Jim Gilmore Concerning the Execution of Angel Breard (14 April 1998).
95 V. Epps, ‘Violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations - Time for Remedies’, (2004) 11 Willamette Journal International Law & Dispute Resolution 1; L. J. Springrose, ‘Strangers in a Strange Land - The Rights of Non-Citizens under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations’, (1999) 14 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 185–213, at 186; J. B. Bellinger III, ‘Lawlessness North of the Border’, New York Times, 17 July 2019.
96 See Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States), Advisory Opinions and Orders, Judgment of 31 March 2004, [2004] ICJ Rep. 12, at 66, para. 141.
97 Ibid., at 58, para. 143.
98 Ibid., at 58, para. 142. Also see LaGrand Case (Germany v. United States), Advisory Opinions and Orders, Judgment of 27 June 2001, [2001] ICJ Rep. 466, at 514, para. 125.
99 Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491 (2008).
100 See Babcock, supra note 85, at 375.
101 See Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany, 16 September 1999.
102 Brief of Amici Curiae the European Union and Members of the International Community in Support of Petitioner, available at www.findlawimages.com/efile/supreme/briefs/04-5928/04-5928.mer.ami.eu.pdf.
103 ‘Amnesty International to March to US Embassy in Madrid on Sunday to Denounce Florida Violation of International Treaty’, US Newswire, 11 December 1999.
104 See Babcock, supra note 85, at 375.
105 See Quigley, supra note 81 at 97.
106 Ibid., at 111.
107 See Amnesty International, AMR 51/76/99, (1999).
108 See Babcock, supra note 85, at 377.
109 See Amnesty International, supra note 107.
110 A. Liptak, ‘U.S. Says It Has Withdrawn from World Judicial Body’, New York Times, 10 March 2005.
111 H. Weinstein, ‘Foreigners on Death Rows Denied Rights, U.S. Says’, Los Angeles Times, 10 December 1998; Lyman, supra note 83.
112 See Amnesty International, AMR 51/34/97 (1997).
113 See Babcock, supra note 85, at 379.
114 A. R. Gonzales and A. L. Moore, ‘No Right at All: Putting Consular Notification in its Rightful Place After Medellin’, (2015) 66(2) Florida Law Review 685, at 701.
115 Ibid., at 701–2.
116 C. A. Bradley, ‘The Federal Judicial Power and the International Legal Order’, (2006) (1) Supreme Court Review 59, at 75.
117 J. G. Ku, ‘The State of New York Does Exist: How States Control Compliance with International Law’, (2004) 82 North Carolina Law Review 457–533, at 513.
118 Counter-Memorial of the United States of America, 27 March 2000, paras. 116–18.
119 Ibid., para. 119. The US government identified the ‘extraordinarily short time between issuance of the Court’s Order and the time set for the execution of Walter LaGrand’ as the other constraining factor.
120 Ibid., para. 121.
121 Ibid., para. 122.
122 S. Djajic, ‘The Effect of International Court of Justice Decisions on Municipal Courts in the United States: Breard v. Greene’, (1999) 23 Hastings International & Comparative Law Review 27, at 78.
123 See Quigley, supra note 81, at 96.
124 Case Concerning the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (Paraguay v. United States), Advisory Opinions and Orders, Order of 9 April 1998, [1998] ICJ Rep. 248, at 158, para. 41.
125 J. Quigley, ‘The Law of State Responsibility and the Right to Consular Access’, (2004) 11 Willamette Journal International Law & Dispute Resolution 39, at 51.
126 O. A. Hathaway, ‘Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference?’, (2002) 111 Yale Law Journal 1935–2042.
127 E. M. Hafner-Burton, ‘International Regimes for Human Rights’, (2012) 15(1) Annual Review of Political Science 265.
128 See Quigley, supra note 125.
129 See Neumayer, supra note 72, at 399.
130 Ibid., at 399.
131 W. Dillinger, Decentralization and Its Implications for Urban Service Delivery (1994); D. Treisman, The Architecture of Government: Rethinking Political Decentralization (2007); P. Bardhan, ‘Decentralization of Governance and Development’, (2002) 16(4) Journal of Economic Perspectives 185.
132 Regarding local governments and human rights, the UN Human Rights Council passed resolutions 24/2 in 2013, 27/4 in 2014, and 33/8 in 2016, see www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/LocalGovernment/Pages/Index.aspx.
133 B. Oomen and M. Baumgärtel, ‘Frontier Cities: The Rise of Local Authorities as an Opportunity for International Human Rights Law’, (2018) 29(2) European Journal of International Law 607.