Private Violence, Public Wrongs, and the Responsibility of States

This Article will discuss the decisions of the Inter-American Court, comparing them with U.S. judicial decisions involving “state action” and private conduct. It will point out the evolution in international law from restraints on the exercise of state power, to the more generalized obligation of ensuring respect for human rights. This Article concludes that the American Convention provides guarantees for individual rights that are lacking in U.S. constitutional law.