Activists in International Courts

ActInCourts (Activists in International Courts) is an emerging and expanding network of interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners whose work on international human rights courts generates ground-breaking research. By creating critical connections between scholars in North America and Europe, and with institutes working on international human rights courts, we hope to foster collaboration and dynamic research on the roles of activist lawyers and nongovernmental organizations in international human rights courts’ jurisprudence and implementation of rulings. Our SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2019-2022) provides the opportunity to more fully explore the power and impact of these partnerships and collaborations.

Collectively, we examine the legitimacy of international courts, state compliance, and legal mobilization before international courts, and we do so from various fields of study and with diverse areas of expertise. Our research ranges from meta-data examinations of general patterns of case law in human rights courts, to local fieldwork on how lawyers and NGO activists work in particular country contexts.