Grounded in the theory of sociology of law and legal doctrinal scholarship, the NGOsteerIACtHR project has developed a two-tier analytical framework for the empirical study of the drivers and processes through which NGOs influence norm interpretation by the IACtHR.
Tier 1 develops an empirical analysis of whether and why NGOs normatively steer this regional Court's jurisprudence, from the perspective of both NGOs and its judges. Conversely, Tier 2 briefly discusses the data analysis method deemed suitable by the project for exploring how legal mobilization has shaped the IACtHR's environmental jurisprudence over time.
To explore these questions, the project begins with the premise that NGOs can persuade the IACtHR to revise its interpretation of norms if their argumentative actions are embedded in a normative structure in which the IACtHR's interpretation of norms is also embedded. However, the effectiveness of these strategies may be hindered if the motivations of the IACtHR’s judges conflict with the NGOs' goals.
As a result, the project provides an empirical study of selected case studies alongside an analytical proposal.
EMPIRICAL STUDY
The project favours a case study approach to the qualitative analysis of three case studies:
1) Comunidad Indígena Maya Q'eqchi' Agua Caliente v Guatemala
2) Escaleras Mejia and Others v Honduras
3) AO No. 23
For the project, influence is defined as the ability of NGOs to persuade the IACtHR to adopt their interpretation of a norm within the context of a specific case.
In line with the contextual connotations of the term, each case study conducted a textual analysis of the relevant data to determine which factors, if any, influenced the IACtHR's jurisprudential innovation under review.
The following areas of innovation were explored: Case -1: The IACtHR’s understanding of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) as a safeguard to guarantee indigenous peoples' access to information under Article 13 in contentious proceedings (in addition to its traditional treatment as a safeguard for indigenous peoples' survival under Article 21 of the Convention); Case-2: The IACtHR’s determination of the scope of the right to defend human rights as protected by different Convention's norms; Case-3: The IACtHR’s recognition of the right to a healthy environment (R2HE) through an obiter dictum.
ANALYTICAL PROPOSAL:
Informed by these empirical findings, the project proceeds to conduct a critical analysis and examination of the literature on the concept of judicial legal consciousness and the citation network analysis. The aim is to propose these as conceptual tools and empirical methods to advance the empirical study of influence drivers from a judicial perspective, as well as influence processes from a multi-stakeholder and institutional perspective.
In summary, the project has preliminarily filled an empirical research gap, as the textual analysis of case studies provides initial evidence of the factors influencing this legal phenomenon. Furthermore, integrating this concept and data analysis method into the empirical assessment has great potential to address a methodological research gap, as it may generate new insights into the driving forces and processes involved.
