A constructivist analysis of the impact of international human rights norms: The case of women's rights under Islamic law in Iran

This study suggests that the impact of international law can be located in the interplay between international legal norms, domestic identity and norm constructions, consciousness and ultimately, the behavior of key actors. By looking beyond a top-down enforcement model and notions of strict compliance, the study links reforms of the Islamic Republic's codification of Shari'a that bring Iran's laws closer to the standards prescribed under international law, to actors' consciousness of international human rights norms. In this manner, the research provides insight into the more nuanced ways in which public international law can matter, even in domestic settings widely considered averse to international human rights norms. At the same time that it makes use of a constructivist framework, the study also attempts to contribute to the constructivist literature by (1) looking beyond the international realm and focusing on the ways in which international human rights norms are deployed at the domestic level, (2) providing greater empirical support for a number of the theoretical assertions posited by constructivists and (3) applying constructivist theory to a complex non-Western case.