The Trouble with Treaties: Immigration and Judicial Review

(Excerpt) This Article therefore concludes that greater judicial enforcement of human rights treaties in the United States will not enhance judicial monitoring of deportation decisions. Despite the popularity of this approach within the human rights literature, its effectiveness within a specific State depends upon how treaty compliance is allocated within the State and the frames used to analyze the legal questions at issue. That said, treaty body jurisprudence and foreign treaty-based jurisprudence can demonstrate alternative uses of the tools within our legal tool kit and can thereby encourage Americans to rethink the validity and appropriateness of the frames currently utilized. But overestimating the influence of treaty jurisprudence will waste resources and blind us to other more efficacious mechanisms for enhancing oversight of deportation decisions.