Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance Lab | Kellogg Institute For International Studies

Policy and Practice Research Lab

Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance

PI's: Diane Desierto (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, a professor of law and global affairs in the Law school, with a joint appointment in 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.

Lab PI's: Diane Desierto (law and global affairs), Aníbal Pérez-Liñán (political science and global affairs)

Affiliates, Fall 2020 (by Project)

Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR)

External Affiliates: Mariana Brocca (Conicet, Argentina), Isabel Anayanssi Orizaga Inzunza (OHCHR), Francesca Parente (University of Pennsylvania)

Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)

External Affiliates: Angie García Atehortúa (Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights, SAHR)

Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)

Faculty affiliates: Emilia Justyna Powell, Political Science
Undergraduate students: Brian Lemay, Clare Hillen, Emma Ziegler

World Bank Inspection Panel

Graduate students: Khawla Wakkaf (JSD), Rachel Gagnon (MGA), Belen Carriedo (MGA)
Undergraduate students: Maura Brennan

Affiliates, Summer 2020 (by Project)

Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR)

Graduate students: Mariana Brocca (LLM), Isabel Anayanssi Orizaga Inzunza (LLM)

Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)

Graduate students: Angie García Atehortúa (LLM)
Undergraduate students: Ana Olavarrieta Trejo

World Bank Inspection Panel

Graduate students: Khawla Wakkaf (JSD), Rachel Gagnon (MGA), Belen Carriedo (MGA)

Reports

SUMMARY OF THE EXPERT WORKSHOP —“Rethinking Compliance and Reparations in International Law”
ReportIACtHR2019.pdf: In this document, we advance a methodological proposal to assess levels of compliance with decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The document presents historical trends, introduces the new methodology, and offers an analysis of 238 cases (1,782 reparation measures) decided by the Court by the end of 2018.
ReportIACtHR2020.pdf: We registered actual dates of compliance for reparation measures ordered by the IACtHR, and compared them to the date of Court resolutions acknowledging compliance. The creation of the Supervision Unit in 2015 shortened the time between compliance and acknowledgment by several months. Analyses using the two dates differ slightly.
ReportIACtHR2020-2.pdf: In this document, we analyze the effect of supervision hearings on state compliance with reparation measures ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). Our study covers all reparation measures awaiting compliance between 2007 and 2019.

Book Chapters

Diane Desierto. "Due Diligence in World Bank Project Financing," in Heike Krieger, Anne Peters, and Leonhard Kreuzer, eds., Due Diligence in the International Legal Order (Oxford University Press, 2020)

Papers

Pérez Liñán, Aníbal, Luis Schenoni, and Kelly Morrison. "Time and Compliance with International Rulings: The Case of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights." Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law (MPIL) Research Paper No. 2019-17: October 2, 2019.

Video

Workshop: Rethinking Compliance and Reparations in International Law; Monday, May 25, 2020

News

Nov. 11, 2020 - Desierto and Perez-Linan Write on the New World Bank Accountability Mechanism
Faculty Fellows Diane Desierto (human rights law and global affairs) and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán (political science and global affairs) are part of a collaborative team that authored an article on the European Journal of International Law's EJIL:Talk!, a leading international law blog.

June 10, 2020: New Lab Holds Inaugural Workshop
The new Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance Lab (NDRL) convened more than 30 scholars, policymakers, and practitioners from leading institutions in international human rights law compliance last month for its inaugural workshop.

Nov. 5, 2019: Bridging Academia and Policy: New Kellogg Labs Promote Research, Policy Impact
The Kellogg Institute for International Studies is launching a major new effort that supports high-impact, high-yield research intended to have a tangible influence on policies and practices affecting democracy and human development.