Jurist Advocacy Movements in Europe and the Andes: How Lawyers Help Promote International Legal Integration

Abstract

A jurist advocacy movement is a group of legal actors (jurists) who organize collectively and deploy legal tools strategically to promote a shared cause. Jurist advocacy movements have specific policy and legal goals, whether they be the promotion of originalist interpretations of a constitution, abolition of the death penalty, advocacy of same-sex marriage or the construction of a supranational legal order. The tools deployed by jurist advocacy movements include filing test cases in court, publishing treatises, policy papers, and academic writings that promote preferred legal interpretations, filing amicus briefs advocating for these interpretations in specific cases, etc. A shared advocacy objective differentiates a jurist advocacy movement from a less goal-oriented and more diffuse network of individuals who exchange information in meetings and remotely, build social connections, and collaborate on projects when doing so helps to address common challenges. This chapter examines the role of jurist advocacy movements in promoting judicial activism in the European Community. It then explains the absence of a corresponding jurist advocacy movement in the Andean context. The chapter concludes by asking whether international courts need jurist advocacy movements in order to flourish.