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The Judicial Expansion Of American Exceptionalism, Rachel Lopez

Rachel E. López

In the modern era, there is a growing sentiment that when the gravest human rights violations occur, the international community has a “responsibility to protect” the victims if the victims’ own government is unwilling or unable to do so. While much of the scholarship on the responsibility to protect focuses on the international community’s ability to engage in military intervention, the doctrine actually provides a menu of options that intervening States can employ to prevent serious abuses of human rights, including, notably for the purposes of this article, legal accountability in judicial fora. States thus have greater latitude than ever …