This book examines the factors that facilitate the inclusion of women on high courts, while recognizing that many courts have a long way to go before reaching gender parity. Why did women start appearing on high courts when they did? Where have women made the most significant strides? To address these questions, the authors built the first cross-national and longitudinal dataset on the appointment of women and men to high courts. In addition, they provide five in-depth country case studies us to unpack the selection of justices to high courts in Canada, Colombia, Ireland, South Africa, and the United States. The cross-national lens and combination of quantitative analyses and detailed country studies examines multiple influences across region and time. Focusing on three sets of explanations —pipelines to high courts, domestic institutions, and international influences- analyses reveal that women are more likely to first appear on their country's high court when traditional ideas about who can and should be a judge erode. In some countries, international treaties, regional emulation, and women's international NGOs play a role in disseminating and linking global norms of gender equality in decision-making. Importantly, while informal institutions and reliance on men-dominated networks can limit access, women are making substantial strides in their countries' highest courts where the supply grows, and often where selectors have incentives to select women. Further, sustained pressure from advocacy organizations-at the local, national, and global levels-contributes to some gains. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterized by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit www.ecprnet.eu The series is edited by Susan Scarrow, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston, and Jonathan Slapin, Professor of Political Institutions and European Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.

Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean is the first major book to analyze the abortion laws of the Latin American and Caribbean nations that are parties to the American Convention on Human Rights. Making use of a broad range of materials relating to human rights and abortion law not yet available in English, the first part of this book analyzes how Inter-American human rights bodies have interpreted the American Convention’s prenatal right to life. The second part examines Article 4(1) of the American Convention, comparing and analyzing the laws regarding prenatal rights and abortion in all twenty-three nations that are parties to this treaty. Castaldi questions how Inter-American human rights bodies currently interpret Article 4(1). Against the predominant view, she argues that the purpose of this treaty is to grant legal protection of the unborn child from elective abortion that is broad and general, not merely exceptional. Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean offers an objective analysis of national and international laws on abortion, proposing a new interpretation of the American Convention’s right-to-life provision that is nonrestrictive and provides general protection for the unborn. The book will appeal not only to students and scholars in the field of international human rights but also to human rights advocates more generally.