Over the last decade, a growing body of empirical scholarship has emerged that tries to test whether international human rights treaties have helped to improve human rights practices. Although this line of research has produced some evidence suggesting that human rights treaties may have made a difference in specific circumstances, the balance of the evidence has not found a consistent relationship between ratification of human rights treaties and improved human rights practices. This evidence raises the question that is the topic of the conference: has international human rights law failed? This conference will bring together prominent political scientists, historians, philosophers, and legal scholars to discuss this question.

The conference is organized by Eric Posner and Adam Chilton and sponsored by the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics.

Participants include:
Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago
Samuel Moyn, Harvard University
Yonatan Lupu, George Washington University
Jeremy Waldron, New York University
Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago
Zach Elkins, University of Texas
Mathias Risse, Harvard University
Andrew Woods, University of Kentucky College of Law
Christopher Fariss, Penn State University
Geoff Dancy, Tulane University
Katerina Linos, University of California, Berkeley
Anna Schrimpf, Princeton University
Eric Posner, University of Chicago
Adam Chilton, University of Chicago

Registration has closed. There may be seats available on a wait and see basis for certain paper presentations. 

Conference Schedule