Thursday 5 May 2011 at 12:30
Public Law Discussion Group
Debating Social Rights
Speaker: Professor Conor Gearty and Dr. Virginia Mantouvalou, Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Leicester, respectively
Venue: Oxford Law Faculty Senior Common Room
In Debating Social Rights, Conor Gearty argues that for rights to work effectively in the wider promotion of social justice, they need to be kept as far away as possible from the courts. He acknowledges the value of rights language in legal and political debate and accepts that human rights are not solely civil and political, with social rights language clearly having a progressive, emancipatory dimension. However he says that lawyers — even well-intentioned lawyers — damage the achievability of the kind of radical transformation in the priorities of states that a genuine commitment to social rights surely necessitates. Virginia Mantouvalou argues that social rights, defined as entitlements to the satisfaction of basic needs, are as essential for the well-being of the individual and the community as long-established civil and political rights. The real challenge, she suggests, is how best to give effect to social rights. Drawing on examples from around the world, she argues for their 'legalisation', and examines the role of courts and the role of legislatures in this process, both at a national and a international level.
For more information please see the event website or contact: Seshauna Wheatle Paolo Ronchi
Interested in this subject? View our Constitutional and Administrative Law page.
Organised by the Public Law Discussion Group
