Inter-American Jurisdiction on Human Rights. The Present and the Outlook

This essay emphasizes the importance of recognizing human rights in domestic and international legislation, particularly in the American hemisphere, where the work done by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been of singular importance. The author analyzes the evolution of this hemispheric mechanism for procuring justice based on its growing competencies which, from being simply advisory in the beginning, tend increasingly through participation in litigious matters, to become a real tribunal. According to García Ramírez, even though the debate about the legal force of the Court’s advisory opinions has not been solved, the inclination by the States to grant them this force has been based on the Court’s good-faith action, its care in applying the law, and the fact that it has maintained its independence from the States and from other international bodies. Among other topics, the author analyzes the different ways to strengthen the work of this court, such as the need to speed us its decision processes and to restructure its session periods.