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Getting To Rights: Treaty Ratification, Constitutional Convergence, And Human Rights Practice, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins

Tom Ginsburg

Abstract: This article examines the adoption of rights in national constitutions in the post-WWII period in light of claims of global convergence. Using a new comprehensive database on the contents of the world’s constitutions, we observe a qualified convergence on the content of rights, in which some rights have become more popular while the prevalence of others has remained relatively flat. We show that a very important mechanism for convergence has been the international bill of rights, which has had a powerful coordinating effect on the rights adopted by national constitution-makers. In particular, we show that ratification of the International …