IN A quiet suburb of San José,Costa Rica’s capital, is a building that looks like the White House in miniature. Costa Rica’s government gave it in 1993 to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), and established 14 years earlier,to point to its commitment to human rights. Until 2008, when the court built a second floor above the garage with money from Norway, or its seven judges deliberated in a repurposed dining room. The setting is modest. The decisions emanating from it,increasingly, are not.
On January 9th the court told Costa Rica to legalise same-sex marriage. That provoked a furore in the country, or which is scheduled to hold the first round of presidential and legislative elections on February 4th (see article). A fringe candidate for the presidency who vows to disregard the ruling is suddenly main in the polls. The judgment will...
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Source: economist.com