Replication Data for: From Litigation to Rights: The Case of the European Court of Human Rights

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.

区域人权法院是否会对人权尊重程度产生影响？除为个体人权侵害提供救济外，案件裁判结果还通过确立人权标准、提升公民社会行动者的权利意识，为潜在社会动员构建规范框架。社会动员的预期会提高政府无视法院裁决的成本。我们认为，具备两项特征的有利国内环境，会提升政府在区域人权法院诉讼后对社会动员的预期：其一，健全的公民社会会在潜在动员群体之间建立起紧密的横向联系；其二，国家人权机构（National Human Rights Institution, NHRI）构建纵向联系网络，既能够将信息从法院向下传递至公民社会，也能够将诉求从公民社会向上传递至有能力制定更完善人权政策的政治精英。我们采用1980年至2012年间所有欧洲委员会成员国的相关数据开展实证分析，结果发现：在具备强大公民社会且存在国家人权机构的有利国内环境中，欧洲人权法院的诉讼活动与人权尊重程度的提升显著相关。