IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mhr/jinste/urnsici0932-4569(201503)1711_87lvntio_2.0.tx_2-f.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Law versus Norms: The Impact of Human-Rights Treaties on National Bills of Rights

Author

Listed:
  • Mila Versteeg

Abstract

The constitutional incorporation of international human-rights law is often seen as one of the most powerful ways in which treaty norms can be enforced at the local level. This paper examines empirically if and how human-rights treaties alter rights commitments in national constitutions. Analyzing the adoption of 103 constitutional rights - only some of which are enshrined in treaties - in 188 countries over a sixty-one-year period, the paper finds that the impact of human-rights treaties on a country's menu of constitutional rights is limited. In some cases, treaty ratification even results in the adoption of fewer constitutional rights.

Suggested Citation

  • Mila Versteeg, 2015. "Law versus Norms: The Impact of Human-Rights Treaties on National Bills of Rights," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 171(1), pages 87-111, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(201503)171:1_87:lvntio_2.0.tx_2-f
    DOI: 10.1628/093245613X14204441572731
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/law-versus-norms-the-impact-of-human-rights-treaties-on-national-bills-of-rights-101628093245615x14204441572731
    Download Restriction: Fulltext access is included for subscribers to the printed version.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1628/093245613X14204441572731?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carter, David B. & Signorino, Curtis S., 2010. "Back to the Future: Modeling Time Dependence in Binary Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 271-292, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maya Sen, 2015. "How Ratifying Treaty Rights Could Affect Norms, Laws, and Constitutional Language," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 171(1), pages 112-117, March.
    2. Kevin L. Cope & Charles Crabtree, 2020. "A Nationalist Backlash to International Refugee Law: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Turkey," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 752-788, December.
    3. Adam S. Chilton & Mila Versteeg, 2015. "The Failure of Constitutional Torture Prohibitions," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 417-452.
    4. Christoph Engel & Urs Schweizer, 2015. "Does the Law Deliver? 32nd International Seminar on the New Institutional Economics June 11-14, 2014, Regensburg, Germany," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 171(1), pages 1-5, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jansesberger, Viktoria, 2024. "Storms, floods, landslides and elections in India's growing metropolises: Hotbeds for political protest?," Working Papers 28, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".
    2. Bellelli, Francesco S. & Scarpa, Riccardo & Aftab, Ashar, 2023. "An empirical analysis of participation in international environmental agreements," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    3. Julia C. Morse & Bridget Coggins, 2024. "Your silence speaks volumes: Weak states and strategic absence in the UN General Assembly," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 515-544, September.
    4. Daniel Krcmaric, 2018. "Varieties of civil war and mass killing," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 55(1), pages 18-31, January.
    5. Evelyne Huber & Itay Machtei & John D. Stephens, 2023. "Testing Theories of Redistribution: Structure of Inequality, Electoral Institutions, and Partisan Politics," LIS Working papers 854, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Bodea, Cristina, 2015. "Fixed exchange rates with escape clauses: The political determinants of the European Monetary System realignments," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 25-40.
    7. Gerling Lena, 2017. "Urban Protests, Coups d’état and Post-Coup Regime Change," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 23(4), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Srinivas C. Parinandi, 2020. "Policy Inventing and Borrowing among State Legislatures," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 852-868, October.
    9. Choong-Nam Kang, 2017. "Capability revisited: Ally’s capability and dispute initiation1," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(5), pages 546-571, September.
    10. Yuleng Zeng, 2024. "Microchips and sneakers: Bilateral trade, shifting power, and interstate conflict," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(4), pages 659-672, July.
    11. Corinne Bara, 2018. "Legacies of Violence," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(9), pages 1991-2016, October.
    12. Bowling Jeremy, 2017. "International Cooperation: Testing Evolution of Cooperation Theories," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 23(1), pages 1-35, January.
    13. Cullen S. Hendrix, 2014. "Oil Prices and Interstate Conflict Behavior," Working Paper Series WP14-3, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    14. Mary, Sebastien, 2022. "Dams mitigate the effect of rainfall shocks on Hindus-Muslims riots," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    15. Nicholas Sambanis & Micha Germann & Andreas Schädel, 2018. "SDM: A New Data Set on Self-determination Movements with an Application to the Reputational Theory of Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(3), pages 656-686, March.
    16. Kyle Haynes, 2017. "Diversionary conflict: Demonizing enemies or demonstrating competence?," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(4), pages 337-358, July.
    17. Alex Braithwaite & Douglas Lemke, 2011. "Unpacking Escalation," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 28(2), pages 111-123, April.
    18. Marc Helbling & Daniel Meierrieks, 2020. "Transnational terrorism and restrictive immigration policies," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(4), pages 564-580, July.
    19. Simone Dietrich & Joseph Wright, 2012. "Foreign Aid and Democratic Development in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-020, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Fabrizio De Francesco & Philipp Trein, 2020. "How Does Corruption Affect the Adoption of Lobby Registers? A Comparative Analysis," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 116-127.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K19 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Other
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(201503)171:1_87:lvntio_2.0.tx_2-f. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Wolpert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/jite .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.