Network Publications

This is a list of select publications by members of the ActInCourts Network.


Rachel Cichowski

Rachel Cichowski is a Professor in the Department of Political Science with a joint appointment in the Law, Societies and Justice Department at the University of Washington. Her primary research interests include international law and courts, legal mobilization, comparative constitutionalism, and human rights.


The European Court of Human Rights, Amicus Curiae and Violence against Women.” 2016. Law & Society Review 50 (4): 890–919.

The Deterrent Effects of the International Criminal Court: Evidence from Libya.” 2016. International Interactions 42 (4): 616–43. doi:10.1080/03050629.2016.1185713.

Domestic Politics and International Human Rights Tribunals: The Problem of Compliance. 2014. Cambridge University Press.

Legal Mobilization, Transnational Activism and Gender Equality in the EU.” 2013. Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société 28 (02): 209–27. doi:10.1017/cls.2013.22.

After the Norm Cascade: NGO Mission Expansion and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.” 2013. Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations 19 (2): 187–206. doi:10.5555/1075-2846-19.2.187.

Judicial Institution Builders: NGOs and International Human Rights Courts.” 2012. Journal of Human Rights 11 (1): 126–49. doi:10.1080/14754835.2012.648154.

The Domestic Mechanisms of Compliance with International Human Rights Law: Case Studies from the Inter-American Human Rights System.” 2012. Human Rights Quarterly 34 (4): 959–85.

The European Court and Civil Society: Litigation, Mobilization and Governance. 2007. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.


Lisa Conant

Lisa Conant is Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University of Denver. Her current research interests concentrate on legal mobilization concerning human rights in the European Court of Human Rights and EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ).


Mobilizing European Law.” 2017. Journal of European Public Policy 25 (9): 1376–89. (w/ Andreas Hofmann, Dagmar Soennecken, and Lisa Vanhala)

Who Files Suit? Legal Mobilization and Torture Violations in Europe.” 2016. Law & Policy 38 (4) : 280–303.

Compelling Criteria? Human Rights in the European Union.” 2014. Journal of European Public Policy 21 (5): 713–29.

Justice Contained: Law and Politics in the European Union. 2002. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.


Courtney Hillebrecht

Courtney Hillebrecht is Samuel Clark Waugh Professor of International Relations and an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.


International Criminal Accountability and the Domestic Politics of Resistance: Case Studies from Kenya and Lebanon.” 2020. Law and Society Review 54 (2): 453–486.

Overlapping International Human Rights Institutions:  Introducing the Women’s Rights Recommendations Digital Database (WR2D2).” 2020. Journal of Peace Research: Online First. (w/Jillienne Haglund)

Domestic Politics and International Human Rights Tribunals: The Problem of Compliance. 2014. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Filiz Kahraman

Filiz Kahraman is an Assistant Professor in Political Science and an affiliate faculty member at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Her research investigates international law, labor activism, and comparative politics.


Domestic Courts, Transnational Law, and International Order.” 2020. European Journal of International Relations 26 (1): 184–208. (w/Nikhil Kalyanpur and Abraham Newman)

A New Era for Labor Activism? Strategic Mobilization of Human Rights against Blacklisting.” 2018. Law & Social Inquiry 43 (4): 1279–1307.


Heidi Nichols Haddad

Heidi Nichols Haddad is an Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. She studies the global governance of human rights through examining interactions between states, non-state and sub-national actors, and intergovernmental organizations and their effects on norms, law, and judicial mechanisms.


Mobilizing the Will to Prosecute: Crimes of Rape at the Yugoslav and Rwandan Tribunals.” 2010. Human Rights Review 12: 109–32. doi:10.1007/s12142-010-0163-x.


Vanessa Kogan

Vanessa Kogan is the Executive Director of the Stichting Justice Initiative (SJI), a strategic litigation non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the former Soviet Union.


The Potential of Domestic and International Courts to Protect Women’s Right to Family Life in the North Caucasus.” 2020. Journal of Human Rights Practice 12 (1): 237–243.

Implementing the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights from the North Caucasus: A Closing Window for Accountability or a Continuing Process of Transitional Justice” in Current Issues in Transitional Justice: Towards a More Holistic Approach, eds. N. Szablewska and S. Bachmann. 2015. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Protecting Human Rights Defenders in the North Caucasus: Reflections on Developments from 2009 to the Present.” 2013. Journal of Human Rights Practice 5 (3): 500–511.

Mobilizing the Will to Prosecute: Crimes of Rape at the Yugoslav and Rwandan Tribunals.” 2010. Human Rights Review 12: 109–32. doi:10.1007/s12142-010-0163-x.


Viviana Krsticevic

Viviana Krsticevic is the Executive Director of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), a non-governmental organization that promotes human rights throughout the Americas through the use of international law and the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights. She has helped shape international human rights standards in key areas—including accountability for gross violations, violence against women, slavery, environmental and social rights—through her litigation, advocacy, and writing.


“The Inter-American System” in Research Handbook on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as Human Rights, eds. Jackie Dugard, Bruce Porter, Daniela Ikawa, and Lilian Chenwi. 2020. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Remedies of the Inter-American Human Rights System.” 2017. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law 111: 261–65. (w/Alejandra Gonza)

“Interim Measures” and “Remedial Recommendations” in The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Commentary, eds. Malcolm Langford, Bruce Porter, Rebecca Brown, and Julieta Rossi. 2016. Pretoria University Law Press.

Mobilizing the Will to Prosecute: Crimes of Rape at the Yugoslav and Rwandan Tribunals.” 2010. Human Rights Review 12: 109–32. doi:10.1007/s12142-010-0163-x.


Dilek Kurban

Dilek Kurban is a Fellow and Lecturer at the Hertie School in Berlin. Her research interests include legal mobilisation, supranational courts, the European Court of Human Rights, judicial politics in authoritarian regimes, minority rights, forced displacement and state violence in politico-ethnic conflicts, with a specialization in Turkey.


Forsaking Individual Justice: The Implications of the European Court of Human Rights’ Pilot Judgment Procedure for Victims of Gross and Systematic Violations.” 2016. Human Rights Law Review 16 (4): 731–69. doi:10.1093/hrlr/ngw032.

Europe as an Agent of Change: The Role of the European Court of Human Rights and the EU in Turkey’s Kurdish Policies.” 2014. SWP Research Paper 2014/RP 09. https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-hsog/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1638.

“A Complicated Affair – the Court and the Kurds: The Role of the European Court of Human Rights in the Broadening of Kurdish Rights in Turkey.” 2012. In The European Court of Human Rights: Implementation, Legal Mobilization and Policy Reform, edited by Dia Anagnostou, 166–87. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (w/Haldun Gülalp)


Mikael Rask Madsen

Mikael Rask Madsen is a Professor of European Law and Integration at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. He is also the Founder and Director of iCourts, the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence for International Courts, which conducts empirical studies of international courts and law. Trained as both a lawyer and a sociologist, he is a pioneer and leading figure of the sociology of international courts and law.


How Context Shapes the Authority of International Courts.” 2016. Law and Contemporary Problems 79 (1):  1–331. (w/Karen J. Alter and Laurence Helfer)

Transnational Power Elites: The New Professionals of Governance, Law and Security. 2013. London, New York: Routledge. (w/Niilo Kauppi)

The European Court of Human Rights Between Law and Politics. eds. 2011. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. (w/Jonas Christoffersen)


Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom

Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom is a Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia and the Principal Investigator of the ActInCourts network. Her major research interests include democratization, human rights, women’s rights, the politics of international democracy assistance, and NGO activism in both domestic and transnational politics, including NGOs’ strategic litigation in international courts.


Courting Gender Justice: Russia, Turkey, and the European Court of Human Rights. 2019. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. (w/Valerie Sperling and Melike Sayoglu)

Russian NGOs and the European Court of Human Rights: A Spectrum of Approaches to Litigation.” 2014. Human Rights Quarterly 36 (4): 844–68.

Advocacy beyond Litigation: Examining Russian NGO Efforts on Implementation of European Court of Human Rights Judgments.” 2012. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 45 (3–4): 255–68.

Funding Civil Society: Foreign Assistance and NGO Development in Russia. 2006. Stanford: Stanford University Press.


Freek van der Veet

Freek van der Veet is a University Researcher at the Erik Castrén Institute for International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki. He studies international litigation at regional human rights courts, legal mobilization under authoritarianism, and the protection of human rights lawyers in dangerous environments.


‘Violence and Human Rights in Russia: How Human Rights Defenders develop their Tactics in the Face of Danger’” 2015. The International Journal of Human Rights 19 (7): 979–98. (w/Laura Lyytikäinen)

Holding on to Legalism: The Politics of Russian Litigation on Torture and Discrimination before the European Court of Human Rights.” 2014. Social & Legal Studies 23 (3): 361–81.

Seeking Life, Finding Justice: Russian NGO Litigation and Chechen Disappearances before the European Court of Human Rights.” 2012. Human Rights Review 13 (3): 303–25.