THE "ACTIVE" JURISPRUDENTIAL EVOLUTION OF THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS: FROM OPTIONAL TO MANDATORY JURISDICTION

Abstract

Article that discusses the active jurisprudential evolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court). Through a literature review and within Public Law and the interface between Constitutional Law and International Law, the research has as its theme the jurisprudential evolution of the Inter-American Court, with the objective of analyzing the transition from an "optional" jurisdiction to qualify as a "mandatory" jurisdiction before the States Parties and International Human Rights Law. As a hypothesis, it is believed that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights "was born" as an "optional" jurisdiction at the international level; however, with the judgments and the jurisprudential construction, it came to be considered a "mandatory" jurisdiction for States in matters of human rights. As a result, it was found that the hypothesis of the was partially confirmed. The use of the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights becomes an instrument of legitimacy for the ICC for the application of an international criminal law that seeks the protection of fundamental rights. This demonstrates that in order to be used as a source of human rights at the international level, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights establishes itself in the international arena as a true jurisdiction, whose effects transcend the reality of the States Parties and contribute to the construction of the normative acquis at the international level. It was noticed with the research that the Inter-American Court, through its jurisprudence, sought to qualify itself as a mandatory jurisdiction in matters of human rights, both before States and at the international level. This argumentative structure demonstrates the change in perspective of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ceased to emphasize monetary reparations and began to concern itself with the material aspects of human rights, an indication that its "active" development has established it as a "mandatory" jurisdiction at the international level.