Ying-Jen Lo

Lo studies how human rights organizations and individual activists have sought to influence American courts on death penalty law and refugee policies. In doing so, she studies whether neutral legal rules have affected judges' decision-making. She concludes that judicial attitude matters most in litigation since judges enjoy autonomous authority in adjudicating cases. Twin goals should dominate human rights activists' agenda: to socialize U.S. judges to international human rights law through tools such as case briefs, amicus statements, and seminars and to extend this socialization to the executive and legislative departments, which, directly or indirectly, influence the courts.