Collaborative Research: Violence, Non-Violence and the Effects of Human Rights Laws

这个项目研究人权法、侵犯人权行为和舆论之间的关系。法律规则如何影响公众是否批准侵犯人权的行为？民意在多大程度上取决于反对派运动和政府是否使用非暴力或暴力策略？这些问题的答案对我们理解治理和国家与社会关系具有重要意义。通过研究这些关系，这个项目将在智力、社会、政策和教育方面产生重大影响。它将使政策制定者、实践者和人权界更好地了解人权法在什么情况下可以影响公众对政府的舆论。该项目的成果将有助于参与设计、执行和宣传遵守人权法的行为者和机构。该项目将使从业人员能够更好地预测暴力危机的影响，并确定在什么条件下可以更有效地利用法律机构和法律言论来约束政府和防止更多的暴力事件。尽管政治学和法学领域发展了关于侵犯人权及其与国际法的关系的重要理论，但这些理论依赖于关于公众舆论的未经检验的假设。我们对公众如何应对侵犯人权的行为知之甚少。在许多情况下，公众反对这种活动，但在某些情况下，公众似乎支持这些活动。调查实验将由随机管理的假设事实模式组成。我们将在几个国家进行调查。这些实验工具将使我们能够系统地评估潜在的因果关系和因果机制。我们将确定违反人权法对公众舆论产生因果影响的程度和条件。此外，该项目将通过系统地相互测试法律原则可能影响公众舆论的主要途径，确定法律如何产生这种影响。

This project studies the relationship between human rights law, human rights violations, and public opinion. How do legal rules affect whether publics approve of human rights violations? To what extent does public opinion depend on whether opposition movements and governments use non-violent or violent tactics? The answers to these questions have important implications for our understanding of governance and the relationship between state and society. By studying these relationships, this project will have substantial intellectual, social, policy, and educational impacts. It will provide policy makers, practitioners, and the human rights community with a better understanding of the conditions under which human rights law can affect public opinion toward governments. The project results will aid the actors and institutions involved in the design, implementation, and advocacy for compliance with human rights law. The project will allow practitioners to better anticipate the impacts of violent crises and to determine the conditions under which legal institutions and legal rhetoric can be used more effectively to constrain governments and prevent additional violence.The project addresses these questions through the use of survey experiments. Although the fields of political science and law have developed important theories about the human rights abuses and their relationship to international law, these theories rely on untested assumptions about public opinion. We know very little about how publics respond to human rights abuses. In many situations, publics are opposed to such activities, but in certain contexts publics seem to favor these activities. The survey experiments will consist of randomly administered hypothetical fact patterns. We will conduct the surveys in several countries. These experimental tools will allow us to systematically assess the underlying causal relationships and causal mechanisms. We will identify the extent to which and the conditions under which violations of human rights law have causal effects on public opinion. In addition, the project will identify how law has such effects by systematically testing against each other the main pathways through which legal principles may affect public opinion.