BOOTSTRAP JUSTICE
                            The Search for Mexico’s Disappeared

2023, Oxford University Press
Bootstrap Justice asks how people living in settings marked by normalized rights violations transform into rights-claiming and, ultimately, rights-bearing citizens. I center the voices and perspectives of people whose lives have been upended by the disappearance of their loved ones in Mexico. The book argues that as people participate in ongoing mobilization and claim-making over time (1) their legal consciousness— their understandings of the state and of themselves as citizens and political actors—shifts, and that with these shifts, (2) their ability to challenge impunity is likewise transformed. 

​The book draws on over a decade of ethnographic work, allowing for in-depth analysis of the individuals involved in the daily struggle to find their loved ones, the organizations they form, and the state- and national-level legal and political contexts in which they operate. This multi-level, temporally-situated perspective provides unique insight into what has been achieved in the past decade, and draws lessons relevant beyond Mexico to countries struggling with legal accountability about what can be achieved in the struggle against impunity.

"They aren't numbers - they have names: we call them children, parents, friends, siblings."

Other Recent Research:
Gallagher, J., Kruks-Wisner, G., & Taylor, W. (2024). Claim-Making in Comparative Perspective: Everyday Citizenship Practice and Its Consequences. Elements in the Politics of Development.

​Anaya-Munoz, A., & Gallagher, J. (2023). “Willingness: human rights crises and state response in Mexico.” Latin American Politics and Society, 65(1), 101-125.

​Gallagher, J. & and J. Contesse. (2022). “Critical Disconnects: Progressive Jurisprudence & Tenacious Impunity in Mexico.” Cambridge University Press. In Politics and Law in Latin America: New Questions, Historic Challenges, (Eds. D. Brinks, S. Botero, & E. Ocantos-Gonzalez).
 
Hilbink, L., Salas, V., Gallagher, J. K., & Restrepo Sanín, J. (2022). Why People Turn to Institutions They Detest: Institutional Mistrust and Justice System Engagement in Uneven Democratic States. Comparative Political Studies, 55(1), 3-31.

Gallagher, J (2019). The Judicial Breakthrough Model: Transnational Advocacy Networks and Lethal Violence. In A. Alejandro & B. Frey (Eds.) Mexico’s Human Rights Crisis (pp.250-271). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Hilbink, L. & J. Gallagher (2019). State and Law in Latin America: A Critical Assessment. In K. Ansolabehere & R. Sieder (Eds.) Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America. Routledge Press.
 
Gallagher, J. (2017). The last mile problem: activists, advocates, and the struggle for justice in domestic courts. Comparative Political Studies, 50(12), 1666-1698.