Policy and Practice Lab - Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance

PI's: Diane Desierto (human rights law and global affairs), Aníbal Pérez-Liñán (political science and global affairs)
Jointly with the Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights

The Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance Lab focuses on the question: Under what conditions do states comply with orders of international tribunals in cases involving human rights?

Led by Faculty Fellows Diane Desierto an associate professor of human rights law and global affairs at the Keough School for Global Affairs, and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, a professor of political science and global affairs who holds a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the Keough School, the lab develops and tests methodologies to assess state compliance with reparative orders of international adjudication bodies, such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the World Bank Inspection Panel. The project will draw on quantitative and qualitative tools in political science and law to integrate teaching, research, and outreach.

The Reparations Lab (RL) is jointly funded by Kellogg and the Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights, and will collaborate with external institutions on three goals:

• Developing a research agenda around compliance with human rights measures
• Training Notre Dame students and international legal scholars on methodologies to assess compliance
• Collaborating with international adjudication bodies to produce reliable information and improve compliance patterns

The lab will enable scholars to conduct comparative research into the design and effectiveness of reparative judgments; orient the strategic framing of human rights reparations to facilitate stakeholders’ monitoring of state compliance with reparative measures; and to contribute to ongoing reform debates on the power and procedures of international human rights tribunals.

The Reparations Lab’s work is expected to produce a variety of publications,  several courses for the Keough School and the College of Arts and Letters, compliance reports for international tribunals, and at least two public databases on compliance with international courts.