Exit Clauses in Regional Human Rights Systems The Socialisation of Human Rights Law at Work?

Regional human rights bodies, such as the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, have constituent instruments which contain clauses allowing states to leave the institution. Given that regional human rights tribunals have the power to issue rulings against states, these clauses have been relatively underused. This paper argues that this is due to the socialisation of states within regional human rights regimes. Exit clauses are a reflection of underlying political forces behind a regional human rights bodies' formation. They also play an important and under-examined role in state socialisation once a state is a member of a regional human rights body.