Salvatore Caserta (University of Copenhagen – iCourts – Centre of Excellence for International Courts) has posted International Organizations and the Protection of Democracy in Latin America on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
What explains the varied authority of international organizations in protecting the rule of law and democracy when faced with democratic regression? While scholarship is often optimistic about the capacity of these institutions to counter antidemocratic forces, the empirical reality presents a mixed bag. The European Union has taken almost a decade to intervene in the democratic backsliding of Poland and Hungary; in any event limiting its scrutiny to issues of judicial independence. When addressing the autocratic turn of Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights has dismissed many cases on admissibility and procedural grounds. Even the latest expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe raises concerns on its efficacy in relation to human rights protection. For their part, African and Latin American international organizations have been active in addressing issues as diverse as the validity of national elections, the independence of the judiciary, and national constitutional crises. Yet, they have all experienced resistance from their member states and lack of compliance with their rulings. A success story seemed the one of the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union, which successfully enforced democracy in The Gambia through the “Operation Restore Democracy” in 2017. Yet, the recent withdrawal notice of the military regimes of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso from the Economic Community of West African States seriously questions the latter’s role in protecting democracy in the region. Informed by an empirical, sociolegal approach grounded in the theory of de facto authority of international organizations, this paper assesses the role and impact of Latin American international organizations in the current crisis of democracy.