Research summary
Legal mobilization is when activist groups or individuals use legal processes and resources to achieve specific social and political goals—and it has become a popular tactic in recent years. International judicial bodies are increasingly ruling on moral disputes, public policy issues, and rights and freedoms, creating legal obligations that states are legally bound to implement. As Canada Research Chair in Legal Mobilization and the Judicialization of Politics (LexPol), Dr. Elizabeth Chrun is shedding light on the effects of legal mobilization.
Focusing on strategic legal actions that are before international human rights courts, she and her research team are assessing how various groups invoke and use the law to achieve their political goals at the litigation and implementation stages—and what e?ect this has on rights development and domestic policies. Their findings will increase our understanding of the role that legal mobilization plays in international and domestic governance processes.