Military Assistance Conditioned on Justice: An Empirical Study of the Leahy Law and Human Rights Prosecutions

In the late 1990s, Senator Patrick Leahy authored a law prohibiting security assistance to foreign military and police units that violate human rights unless their country tries to bring the offenders to justice. The Law aims to incentivize countries to bring human rights abusers to justice, but has received mixed reviews about its effectiveness. This Essay assesses the Law’s effectiveness with an empirical analysis, which presents novel evidence the Law may serve its purpose. These results also challenge prior empirical research on U.S. foreign aid and human rights.