The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics

by Kathryn Sikkink

Acclaimed scholar Kathryn Sikkink examines the important and controversial new trend of holding political leaders criminally accountable for human rights violations.

Grawemeyer Award winner Kathryn Sikkink offers a landmark argument for human rights prosecutions as a powerful political tool. She shows how, in just three decades, state leaders in Latin America, Europe, and Africa have lost their immunity from any accountability for their human rights violations, becoming the subjects of highly publicized trials resulting in severe consequences. This shift is affecting the behavior of political leaders worldwide and may change the face of global politics as we know it.Drawing on extensive research and illuminating personal experience, Sikkink reveals how the stunning emergence of human rights prosecutions has come about; what effect it has had on democracy, conflict, and repression; and what it means for leaders and citizens everywhere, from Uruguay to the United States. The Justice Cascade is a vital read for anyone interested in the future of world politics and human rights.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Academic, History, Law, Grad School, War

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 26, 2011

About the author

Kathryn Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one for academic reasons, but it's actually quite readable if you're interested in human rights. It's a good overview of the history and evolution of human rights prosecutions, even if she emphasizes Argentina in a bit more than is probably warranted.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for those who are interested in how the idea of individual accountability for state officials came about in the context of humanitarian crimes. This book is more academic in tone, so it's for those who want to go deep into the subject (I read it for a seminar), but it is also peppered with powerful anecdotes along the way. Sikkink addresses some of the most important questions in the sphere of human rights and accountability (i.e. Do prosecutions help or hurt human rights? Do prosecutions lead to political instability? etc.) and backs up her statements with some fairly compelling data. The chapter on U.S. resistance to the justice cascade is particularly thought-provoking. I'm a big Sikkink fan and this is a great read for those who are interested in this topic.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really impressed with this book's combination of statistical evidence-based analysis, historical research, and personal/philosophical stories. It helps that I'm very strongly in favor of human rights prosecutions and knew the backstory of many of the cases she included. In particular, though, the use of hard data to back up a lot of the theories on the effects of prosecutions of heads of state made this book stand out as opposed to just an opinionated academic treatise on why trials are good (or bad). Also the fact that she then went on to look at the relevance for powerful countries rounded out the discussion well.

[hoffnarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Critics of human rights discourse and new approaches to the history of human rights will probably see this work as an example of the kind of optimistic picture that they are working to deconstruct but from a normative perspective, the term "justice cascade" is useful as a tool and approach. The trick will be to combine this with some of the lessons of the critical scholarship.