Re-inventing the rule of law: Human rights in El Salvador

Democratization

Volumn 4, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 110-134

  Dodson, J Michael ^a   Jackson, Donald W ^a  

^a TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; HUMAN RIGHTS; LEGISLATIVE REFORM; LIBERAL DEMOCRACY; POLITICAL CHANGE;

EL SALVADOR;

EID: 0031448363     PISSN: 13510347     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13510349708403538     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. A. Brewer-Carías, Judicial Review in Comparative Context. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p.7 et seq.
2. Salvadorans often speak of 20 years of war - the decade of the 1970s during which accumulating grievances were met by severe state repression, and the decade of the 1980s, in which armed struggle against the government was led by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). This generation of war was brought to an end by the peace negotiations discussed in the text.
3. I. Johnstone, Rights and Reconciliation: UN Strategies in El Salvador (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995).
4. M. Popkin, Justice Delayed: The Slow Pace of Judicial Reform in El Salvador (Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America and Hemisphere Initiatives, 1994).
5. Ibid. p.2.
6. D. Holiday and W. Stanley, 'Building the Peace: Preliminary Lessons from El Salvador', Journal of International Affairs, Vol.46 (1993), pp.416-17.
7. J. Schmidhauser, 'The Circulation of Judicial Elites: A Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective', in M. Czudnowski (ed.), Does Who Governs Matter?: Elite Circulation in Contemporary Societies (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1982), pp.38-9.
8. D. Jackson, 'Salient Interactions: The State Trial Judge and the Legal Profession', The Justice System Journal, Vol.1 (1975), pp.24-37.
9. I. Stotzky and C. Nino, 'The Difficulties of the Transition Process', in 1. Stotzky, Transition to Democracy in Latin America: The Role of the Judiciary (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), pp.3-20.
10. A. Garro, 'The Role of the Judiciary in Controlling Governmental Action Under a State of Siege', Human Rights Law Journal, Vol.4 (1983), pp.311-37; C. Nino, On the Exercise of Judicial Review in Argentina', in Stotzky, op. cit., pp.309-35; M. de Jesus, 'A Model of a Judicial System in a Transitional Society: The Argentine Case', paper presented at the 1993 Interim Meeting of the Research Committee on Comparative Judicial Studies of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Santa Fe, New Mexico; and J. Sutil, 'The Judiciary and the Political System in Chile: The Dilemmas of Judicial Independence During the Transition to Democracy', in Stotzky, op. cit.,pp.89-106.
11. A. Garro, 'The Role of the Judiciary in Controlling Governmental Action Under a State of Siege', Human Rights Law Journal, Vol.4 (1983), pp.311-37; C. Nino, On the Exercise of Judicial Review in Argentina', in Stotzky, op. cit., pp.309-35; M. de Jesus, 'A Model of a Judicial System in a Transitional Society: The Argentine Case', paper presented at the 1993 Interim Meeting of the Research Committee on Comparative Judicial Studies of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Santa Fe, New Mexico; and J. Sutil, 'The Judiciary and the Political System in Chile: The Dilemmas of Judicial Independence During the Transition to Democracy', in Stotzky, op. cit.,pp.89-106.
12. A. Garro, 'The Role of the Judiciary in Controlling Governmental Action Under a State of Siege', Human Rights Law Journal, Vol.4 (1983), pp.311-37; C. Nino, On the Exercise of Judicial Review in Argentina', in Stotzky, op. cit., pp.309-35; M. de Jesus, 'A Model of a Judicial System in a Transitional Society: The Argentine Case', paper presented at the 1993 Interim Meeting of the Research Committee on Comparative Judicial Studies of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Santa Fe, New Mexico; and J. Sutil, 'The Judiciary and the Political System in Chile: The Dilemmas of Judicial Independence During the Transition to Democracy', in Stotzky, op. cit.,pp.89-106.
13. A. Garro, 'The Role of the Judiciary in Controlling Governmental Action Under a State of Siege', Human Rights Law Journal, Vol.4 (1983), pp.311-37; C. Nino, On the Exercise of Judicial Review in Argentina', in Stotzky, op. cit., pp.309-35; M. de Jesus, 'A Model of a Judicial System in a Transitional Society: The Argentine Case', paper presented at the 1993 Interim Meeting of the Research Committee on Comparative Judicial Studies of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Santa Fe, New Mexico; and J. Sutil, 'The Judiciary and the Political System in Chile: The Dilemmas of Judicial Independence During the Transition to Democracy', in Stotzky, op. cit.,pp.89-106.
14. O. Fiss, 'The Limits of Judicial Independence', University of Miami Inter-American Law Review,Vol 25 (1993), pp.55-8.
15. O. Fiss, 'The Right Degree of Independence', in Stotzky, op. cit., p.60.
16. de Jesus, op. cit.
17. Interview with Rene Hernandez Valiente, Vice President of the Supreme Court of Justice, 6 June 1995.
18. Interview with Dr José Domingo Méndez, president of the Supreme Court of Justice, 14 June 1995.
19. Interview with Jorge Obando, director of the US Agency for International Development's Judicial Reform Program, in San Salvador, 9 Jan. 1995.
20. Francisco Díaz of the Center for the Study of Applied Law (CESPAD) has repeatedly pointed out the problem of concetration of judicial power in the Supreme Court. See Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution: Prospects for Legal Reform (New York: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 1993), p.7. Also interview with Francisco Díaz, 12 Jan. 1995.
21. G. Bland, 'Comments of Pedro Nikken', in El Salvador: Sustaining Peace, Nourishing Democracy (Washington, DC: The Latin American Program, The Woodrow Wilson Center and the Washington Office on Latin America, 1993), p.33. Nikken is a Venezuelan jurist who was appointed an independent expert by the UN.
22. Holiday and Stanley, p.418.
23. Truth Commission (Comisión de la Verdad Para El Salvador), De la Locura a La Esperanza : La Guerra de 12 An̄os en El Salvador (Report of the Truth Commission) (San Salvador: United Nations, 1993), p.190. This quote heads the June 1993 report of the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights, El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution: Prospects for Legal Reform, written by Margaret Popkin.
24. Truth Commission (Comisión de la Verdad Para El Salvador), De la Locura a La Esperanza : La Guerra de 12 An̄os en El Salvador (Report of the Truth Commission) (San Salvador: United Nations, 1993), p.190. This quote heads the June 1993 report of the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights, El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution: Prospects for Legal Reform, written by Margaret Popkin.
25. Interview with Dr José Domingo Méndez, President of the Supreme Court of Justice, 14 June 1995.
26. Interview with José Albino Tinetti, Director of the Judicial Training School (an organ of the National Council of the Judiciary), 6 June 1995.
27. Popkin, Justice Delayed: The Slow Pace of Judicial Reform in El Salvador, p.8.
28. Interview with Dr Rene Hernandez Valiente, Vice President of the Supreme Court of Justice, 6 June 1995.
29. Interviews with Dr Felipe Villavicencio, 11 Jan. 1995, Reed Brody, 10 Jan. 1995, and Dr José Domingo Méndez, 14 June 1995.
30. Interview with Dra Aronette Díaz, Justice of the Administrative Court, CSJ, 8 June 1995.
31. Interview with Dr Enrique Argumedo, the Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice, 9 June 1995.
32. Interview with Dr José Domingo Méndez, President, Supreme Court of Justice, 14 June 1995.
33. R. Brody, 'The United Nations and Human Rights in El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution', unpublished report furnished by the author, 1995, p. 14.
34. Interview with Nidia Díaz, FMLN Deputy and President, Commission of Justice and Human Rights of the Legislative Assembly, 12 June 1995.
35. Data received by fax from Dr Mario Antonio Solano Ramirez, Magistrate of the Constitutional Chamber of the Salvadoran Supreme Court, Jan. 1997.
36. United Nations (ONUSAL), 'Report of the Secretary General', A/51/693 (1996).
37. Interview with Dr Enrique Argumedo, Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice, 9 June 1995.
38. Interview with Dr Mauricio Gutiérrez Castro, 12 June 1996, San Salvador.
39. Interview with Dr Mario Solano Ramirez, 16 Dec. 1996.
40. Encuesta Sobre Derechos Humanos y El Sistema Judicial, a public opinion survey conducted by the Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública (IUDOP), Universidad Centroamericana 'José Simeón Cañas' (UCA). The survey was jointly sponsored by the Instituto de Derechos Humanos (IDHUCA), the European Union, and Texas Christian University.
41. F. Díaz Rodríguez, 'Caracterización de los Procuradores Centroamericanos de Derechos Humanos', (unpublished paper furnished by author, 1994), p.8.
42. R. Brody op. cit., pp. 15-16.
43. United Nations (ONUSAL) op. cit., p.3.
44. V. Velázquez de Avilés, 'La institución del Ombudsman en Centroamérica: tareas y desafíos', Derechos Humanos Vol.2, No.2 (1995) p.5-8.
45. Brody, op. cit., p.16.
46. Ibid., p.14.
47. C. Mackenzie, 'El Salvador: Peace Talks Produce Reform Plan', in Mesoamerica, Vol.10, No.5 (1991), p.3.
48. United Nations (ONUSAL), X Informe del Director de la Divisíon de Derechos Humanos de la Mision de Obsevadores de las Naciones Unidas en El Salvador (New York: United Nations, 1992), pp.14-15.
49. M. Popkin, G. Vickers and J. Spence, Justice Impugned: The Salvadoran Peace Accords and the Problem of Impunity (Cambridge, MA: Hemisphere Initiatives, 1993), p.11.
50. Interview with Dr José Domingo Méndez, President, Supreme Court of Justice, 14 June 1995.
51. Proceso (1996), p.715.
52. United Nations (ONUSAL) 1996, p.4.
53. D. García-Sayán, Human Rights and Peace-Keeping Operations (unpublished report supplied by the author, 1995), pp. 19-20.
54. Interview with Dr René Hernandez Valiente, 6 June 1995.
55. Interview with Nidia Díaz, 12 June 1995.
56. Interview with Dr José Domingo Méndez, 14 June 1995.
57. N. Kritz (ed.), Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, Vol. II (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1995), p.34.
58. K. Loewenstein ,'Justice', in E. Litchfield (ed.), Governing Postwar Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1953), pp.238-49.
59. C. Guarnieri, 'The Judiciary in Transition from Authorianism to Democracy: The Cases of Italy and Spain', (paper presented at the 1993 Interim Meeting of the Research Committee on Comparative Judicial Studies of the IPSA., Santa Fe, New Mexico); J. Toharia, 'Judicial Independence in an Authoritarian Regime: The Case of Contemporary Spain', Law and Society Review (1975), pp.475-96.
60. C. Guarnieri, 'The Judiciary in Transition from Authorianism to Democracy: The Cases of Italy and Spain', (paper presented at the 1993 Interim Meeting of the Research Committee on Comparative Judicial Studies of the IPSA., Santa Fe, New Mexico); J. Toharia, 'Judicial Independence in an Authoritarian Regime: The Case of Contemporary Spain', Law and Society Review (1975), pp.475-96.
61. Guarnieri, op. cit., p.4.
62. Stotzky, op. cit., pp.43-6.
63. de Jesus, op. cit.
64. Nino, op. cit., p.322.
65. See Sutil, op. cit., pp.89-91. Jorge Corra Sutil is Dean of the School of Law of Diego Portales University of Chile. He was Chief of Staff of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation during the first year of post-Pinochet democracy.
66. Sutil, op. cit., p.101.
67. T. Vallinder, 'The Judicialization of Politics - A World-wide Phenomenon: Introduction', International Political Science Review, Vol.15 (1994), p.91.