Donald W. Jackson

Re‐inventing the rule of law: Human rights in El Salvador

Recent transitions from authoritarianism to democracy have been front‐page news. Often attention to such transitions has focused on efforts to create and sustain democratic elections and to guarantee open political competition between parties that are committed to majority rule. However, equally important in such transitions is the implementation of the rule of law. This article examines the efforts of one country, El Salvador, to re‐establish the rule of law as part of its passage to liberal democracy. The efforts to implement the Salvadoran peace accords that were signed in January 1992 provide the focus. The United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) was created to monitor compliance. One important consequence of the accords was the effort to achieve broad reform of the justice system. Salvadors progress here is evaluated both in respect of the degree of compliance with the accords, and, more importantly, in establishing an independent judiciary that will be capable of protecting human ri...

Search and Seizure at the Federal Circuit Level

In this paper, we analyze the application of the exclusionary rule to Fourth Amendment search and seizure cases in the Federal Circuit Courts during the period 1968-1985. To conduct our analysis, we read and coded data from each of the 535 such cases decided in that period. Briefly, our findings are that the exclusionary rule has always been applied in a small minority of cases, and that the proportion of cases in which evidence has been excluded has declined over time. In addition, in most cases the court decisions have been based upon a routine evaluation of the facts of individual cases, and decisions are largely lacking in sophisticated discussion of constitutional principles. Moreover, Burger court decisions over the last fifteen years have had a limiting effect upon the circumstances under which the exclusionary rule can be applied.