World Politics Series

Is the Justice Cascade Over?

Tue
Nov
26

Kathryn Sikkink
Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy
Harvard Kennedy School

Despite Sikkink's previous claims that we have entered an age of accountability with a “justice cascade” of human rights prosecutions, her most recent data show that there has been a marked decline in domestic, foreign, and international prosecutions worldwide after peaking in 2010.  In the talk, she will discuss how changes in both the conditions for the demand and the supply of accountability have contributed to this new trend of declining prosecutions, especially because of the retrocession of liberal democracies.  

This lecture is part of a larger series organized by Faculty Fellows Scott Mainwaring and Karrie Koesel entitled “Perspectives on World Politics.” Since its inception in 2016, this series aims to spotlight the Kellogg Institute’s strength in comparative politics by featuring distinguished scholars who speak on a topic related to each year’s theme.