New Publication: Socio-Economic Rights and Constitutional Law

Socio-economic rights raise many complex challenges to the traditional understanding of the nature of human rights, the role of courts in democratic society and the nature of remedies. This collection draws together the sophisticated and constructive solutions developed by the foremost thinkers to fully recognise socio-economic rights, demonstrating how traditional concepts and obstacles can be recharacterised and modified to ensure respect for the indivisibility of human rights.

This important collection provides crucial insights into the emerging and perennial challenges to socioeconomic rights. Including an original introduction, it is an ideal resource for those new to the study of socioeconomic rights, academics, policy makers and all those interested in using human rights to achieve social justice. 24 articles, dating from 1987 to 2015 Contributors include: Philip Alston, Beth Goldblatt, Karl Klare, Sandra Liebenberg, Frank Michelman, Gerald Quinn, Kamala Sankaran, Amaryta Sen, Magdalena. Sepúlveda Carmona.

Reviews

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognised both civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic and social rights on the other. Yet, until recently far more scholarly attention had been paid to civil and political rights than to economic and social rights. Happily, that has begun to change and the last two decades have seen increasing scholarly attention paid to economic and social rights as well as an emerging jurisprudence on their protection and fulfilment in jurisdictions across the globe. Sandra Fredman and Meghan Campbell have gathered together in one volume some of the most important published work by leading scholars in relation to economic and social rights. The book also includes a fine introduction to the topic written by Sandra Fredman, which provides a clear and helpful outline of current debates. I have no doubt that the book will serve as an invaluable resource for students, scholars, practising lawyers, judges and policy makers, and that it will serve as a spur to further scholarly work in the field.

Justice Kate O’Regan, Former Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

This volume succeeds in doing the impossible: to bring together the major contributions that have shaped our thinking on the role of constitutional law and domestic courts in bringing life to social and economic rights. Although it covers a number of world regions and travels both in time and in space, it is guided by a single conviction – social and economic rights can become tools to achieve social transformation, and courts are the agents of this transformation.

Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights