THE INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM OF HUMAN RIGHTS by David Harris and Stephen Livingstone (editors). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. 588 pp. Cloth $125.00. ISBN 0-19-826552-2.

Reviewed by Donald W. Jackson, Department of Political Science, Texas Christian University. Email: d.w.jackson@tcu.edu.

As with all edited books, some contributions are better and more useful than others. The first chapter in this book is by one of the editors, David Harris, is very good; it provides essential information, especially for those who have little or no prior knowledge of the Inter-American human rights system (which seeks to enforce the provisions of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man [1948] and the American Convention on Human Rights [1969]).

The first key fact, however, is that none of the following countries have ratified the American Convention on Human Rights: the United States, Canada, Cuba, and the Caribbean states of Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, the 1948 Declaration may be applied, in certain circumstances, by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights even to countries that have not ratified the Convention.

The second key fact is that the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (housed in Washington, DC at the OAS) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (sitting in San José, Costa Rica) are now roughly where the European Commission of Human Rights (it began its work in 1955) and the European Court of Human Rights (its first judges having been elected in 1959) were in the 1970s, both in terms of the number of cases filed and the number of important outcomes. By 1982 only about thirty cases had been brought before the European Court of Human Rights, but since then its docket has mushroomed and, within its sphere, its importance rivals the Court of Justice of the European Union (Jackson, 1997). The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights began its work in 1960. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights was created in 1979. The first decision of the Court was rendered in 1987, and Appendix IX to this book lists only sixteen contentious cases so far. Harris appropriately notes, however, that the alleged human rights violations that have been brought before the Inter-American system have involved gross violations: disappearances, murder, torture and arbitrary detention, so the importance of such issues may transcend the paucity of decisions.

The second chapter, by Tom Farer (former President of the Inter-American Commission) gives the background on the Commission. Farer argues that the Commission only "began in earnest to test the limits of its authority "in the second half of the 1970s (p. 31). Much of its important work consists of "in loco" visits to "offending countries." Farer says that the Commission has "converted itself into an accusatory agency, a kind of Hemispheric Grand Jury" (p. 32). Unfortunately, he notes that none of the "great malefactors" of the 1970s (Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Uruguay and Paraguay) were at the time parties to the Convention. However, the country reports issued by the Commission (for example, about El Salvador in 1978) have become important in their own right.

Chapter four, by Cecilia Medina (a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee) reviews in depth the importance of the country reports issued by the Inter-American Commission. Chapter six, by Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Vice-President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) details the operation of the Inter-American Court. Chapters eight through ten review the civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, and indigenous rights enforceable under the Inter-American system. The last two chapters contain recommendations for improvement (Judge Cançado Trinidade again) and notes on the procedural shortcomings of the system (by José Miguel Vivanco, of Human Rights Watch/Americas and Lisa Bhansali of the Open Society Institute). The most important shortcoming "concerns the enforceability of the Commission’s decisions and verification that they have been respected," but the need to "depoliticize the inter-American system by minimizing discretion, and increasing predictability and consistency in the Commission’s practice" heads the chapter’s conclusion (p. 439).

Altogether, the book consists of fourteen chapters, followed by nine Appendices containing the essential background documents on the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights. Its distinguished contributors are well situated by academic credentials and often by direct experience to inform us about the Inter-American system.

Probably the closest competitor to this book is the 1995 edition of the Buergenthal and Shelton casebook, PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE AMERICAS, which, at $84, represents a substantial savings. The six-volume set of loose-leaf binders by Buergenthal and Norris, HUMAN RIGHTS: THE INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM, was last updated in 1993, and the set does not appear in the current catalog of the publisher.

Buergenthal, Thomas and Robert E. Norris (eds.). 1982, 1993. HUMAN RIGHTS: THE INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications.

Buergenthal, Thomas and Dinah Shelton (eds.). 1995. PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE AMERICAS: CASES AND MATERIALS. Arlington, VA: N. P. Engel .

Jackson, Donald W. 1997. THE UNITED KINGDOM CONFRONTS THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS. Gainesville: The University Press of Florida.

Copyright 1995