More for Less: The Interactive Translation of Global Norms in Postconflict Guatemala

How are global norms translated into local contexts? I examine the translation of three rule-of-law norms in postconflict Guatemala: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the right to access public information, and best practices for international rule-of-law commissions. These cases, I argue, do not fit established models for diffusion, such as those associated with standard bargaining approaches, norm socialization frameworks, and norm localization theory. Instead, rule-of-law promotion triggered domestic contestation and, subsequently, what I term an "interactive translation loop." These processes changed the modes of interaction among rule-of-law promoters and how the norms ultimately translated into the Guatemalan context. I demonstrate that a critical variable, the precision of international norms, conditions the leeway available for such translations. To the extent that my framework travels to other cases, it offers an important corrective to established theories of how global norms translate into local contexts.