International Law and Democracy

Page 1 of 2

Filter category

Feature post image

Thirty years from Dayton: Has the Bosnian Constitution found its legitimacy?

December 10, 2025

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Known as the Dayton Constitution, after the city in Ohio where the final rounds of peace negotiations involving representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, and Croatia took place, the Constitution was annexed to the Dayton Peace Accords (DPA) negotiated in that city and signed in Paris on December 14, 1995. The Constitution is often described as a straitjacket due to its preference for collective over individual rights, as reflected in numerous veto procedures that favor ethnic-based decision-making. Its shortcomings in representing citizens have been the subject of ECtHR jurisprudence, most notably in the Sejdic and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina case. Additionally, the DPA empowered the international presence in BiH, which at the height of its peacebuilding efforts had 60,000 soldiers and at least 5,000 foreign civilian staff, issuing their own decrees to break the deadlock between the three sides, which has cast      doubts over whether the country created in Dayton was sovereign or not.

Read more

The Boomerang Effect: How Disrespect for International Law Threatens Democracy

July 23, 2025

The allegiance of governments in the Global North to international law (sometimes endorsed in reductionist form as “the rules-based international order”) is currently experiencing an abrupt collapse. Since 2022, the Global North has based its support for Ukraine largely on the fact that the Russian war of aggression blatantly violates international law. In contrast, some northern governments…

Read more

In defense of a human right to democracy: Reflections on the pending Advisory Opinion before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

July 11, 2025

On the 26th of March of this year the Secretariat of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘IACtHR’ or ‘the Court’) issued a press release communicating the request for an advisory opinion presented by the republic of Guatemala focused on democracy and its protection in the Inter-American human rights system. Throughout their filing, Guatemala explores the…

Read more

People As Products: A Human Rights Perspective On The Transfer Of US Prisoners To Salvadoran Jails

February 20, 2025

On the 4th of February 2025, the President of El Salvador offered the United States of America ‘the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system’, transferring convicted U.S. criminals into the Salvadoran mega-prison (CECOT) ‘in exchange for a fee.’ Amidst an increasingly fragile rule of law, mounting carceral expansion and documented human rights abuses in Salvadoran…

Read more

Electoral Dysfunction: Romania’s Election Annulment, Disinformation, and ECHR Positive Obligations to Combat Election Irregularities

January 6, 2025

In a historical year for global democratic elections, Romania’s presidential election is the latest European election to have elicited controversy. Days prior to the scheduled second round of voting, the country’s constitutional court annulled the results of the first round voting results. The constitutional court’s decision, which will necessitate a fresh vote, arose in response to…

Read more