Socializing states: promoting human rights through international law

This title argues for a greater specification and a more comprehensive inventory of how international law influences relevant actors to improve human rights conditions. The book's aim is to improve the understanding of how norms operate in international society with a view to improving the capacity of global and domestic institutions to harness the processes through which human rights cultures are built

This title argues for a greater specification and a more comprehensive inventory of how international law influences relevant actors to improve human rights conditions. The book's aim is to improve the understanding of how norms operate in international society with a view to improving the capacity of global and domestic institutions to harness the processes through which human rights cultures are built.

Introduction : rethinking state socialization and international human rights law -- Three mechanisms of social influence -- Acculturation of states : the theoretical model -- Acculturation of states : the empirical record -- Conditional membership : socialization and the community delimitation -- Precision of legal obligations : socialization and rule-making -- Monitoring and enforcement : socialization and rule-breakers -- State acculturation and the problem of compliance -- Toward an integrated model of state socialization -- Conclusion: taking stock and future research.

The role of international law in global politics is as poorly understood as it is important. But how can the international legal regime encourage states to respect human rights? Given that international law lacks a centralized enforcement mechanism, it is not obvious how this law matters at all, and how it might change the behavior or preferences of state actors. In Socializing States, Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks contend that what is needed is a greater emphasis on the mechanisms of law's social influence--and the micro-processes that drive each mechanism. Such an emphasis would make clearer