Global Diffusion and the Role of Courts in Shaping the Human Right to Vote

The Politics of the Globalization of Law: Getting from Rights to Justice, Alison Brysk, ed., Routledge, April 2013

Posted: 19 May 2013

See all articles by Ludvig Beckman

Ludvig Beckman

Stockholm University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

Legal norms protecting the right to vote are an integrated part of human rights law. And yet, national governments frequently pursue policies that restrict opportunities for voting by marginalized groups. The consistency of such policies with the human right to vote remains possible due to the vague conditions for when restrictions are justified. While international conventions provide for the legal protection of the right to vote, the gaps of that framework contributes to make the protection less effective.

However, with the increasing activism of courts, in domestic and international settings, the legal situation is transformed. The courts are beginning to provide more substance to the relevant articles of human rights law. This development is particularly visible in the case of prisoner voting rights. In the last decade, the voting rights of prisoners have been expanded as a direct result of judicial decisions. Looking at this process critically, we focused on how the reasoning of judges is shaping and defining the right to vote and, ultimately, the very idea of democracy. The argument made here is that democratic rights will be differently construed depending on whether the courts approach them by rule of law-like standards or by interest-balancing standards.

With the advent of global standards of jurisprudence in the realm of human rights law, the legal protections of individual interests is improving. But since the courts are acting more like Burkeans than rationalists, the result is that the interests protected are the interests in the rule of law rather than the interests in democratic rights.

Suggested Citation

Beckman, Ludvig, Global Diffusion and the Role of Courts in Shaping the Human Right to Vote (2013). The Politics of the Globalization of Law: Getting from Rights to Justice, Alison Brysk, ed., Routledge, April 2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2266908

Ludvig Beckman (Contact Author)

Stockholm University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Stockholm, 106 91
Sweden

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