An empirical analysis of US state court citation practices of international human social rights treaties

Abstract

This study analyses US state court behaviours in citing international human rights treaties to advance human social rights. Employing case analysis and logistic regression, we find that US state court citation practices to human rights treaties provide support for human social rights depending upon the type of human rights treaty cited; whether the case opinion is a published decision; and, whether the judicial opinion is a criminal or civil case. These judicial citation practices provide US state judges with the institutional capacity to advance universal human social rights. Theoretical and empirical implications are presented in the concluding section.