THE INTER-AMERICAN STANDARDS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND RULE OF LAW: A CRITICAL EVALUATION

This work evaluates, from a rule of law perspective, the doctrine of the Inter -American standards of human rights. By developing this doctrine, both the Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have imposed standards of conduct on States which are not expressly recognized by conventional instruments. This paper argues that the controversy existing around the doctrine of standards demonstrates important problems of promulgation whose "accumulative" effects limits the realization of other rule of law require-ments. The authors conclude that those problems are sufficiently critical to revisit the scope of the doctrine of Inter-American standards.