Consolidating Democracy and Preventing Backsliding: Two Approaches to Authoritarian Challenges Developed by the Inter-American Court

Julian Huertas*

Averting democratic erosion and rebuilding the rule of law in societies weakened by illiberal actors are among today’s most pressing global concerns. This Article examines how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has engaged with those challenges and develops two adjudication models that explain its response to authoritarian threats in Latin America: an anti-impunity approach intended to consolidate democratic institutions by strengthening the rule of law, and a pro-judicial independence approach aimed at protecting the autonomy of domestic courts from leaders who weaponize the law to undermine checks on executive power. While the Article highlights the virtues of these approaches and their contribution to the protection and promotion of democracy, it also argues that the Inter-American Court needs to take further substantive steps toward more sophisticated frameworks that enable it to confront the increasingly innovative and skilled strategies employed by contemporary autocrats.

*Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Law at Universidad de La Sabana Faculty of Law and Political Science (Colombia). S.J.D., University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Contact: julian.huertas@unisabana.edu.co; julian.huertas@alumni.utoronto.ca.