Law Commons^™

Comparing Experiences Of Constitutional Reforms To Enshrine The Right To Water In Brazil, Colombia, And Peru: Opportunities And Limitations, Lara Côrtes, Camila Gianella, Angela M. Páez, Catalina Vallejo Piedrahíta

Public Administration Faculty Research

In this paper we compare recent efforts towards the constitutionalization of the right to water in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru to understand the opportunities and limitations related to the attempts to enhance access to piped water to the highest normative level. Peru passed a constitutional amendment in 2017 while Brazil and Colombia have seen much right-to-water activism but have not succeeded in passing such reforms. We explore the role of the existing domestic legal frameworks on drinkable water provision and water management towards the approval of constitutional amendments. We find that all three countries have specialized laws, water governing institutions, …

Roadblocks To Access: Perceptions Of Law And Socioeconomic Problems In South Africa, Kira Tait

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation explores ordinary Black South Africans' perceptions of the law and how these perceptions impact their views of the desirability and appropriateness of appealing to courts when they have problems accessing constitutionally guaranteed services. Specifically, I study why people choose not to use courts to secure access to water, healthcare, education, and housing when it is both legal and possible to do so. Since it transitioned to democracy, South Africa has become one of the leaders of socioeconomic rights protection through courts. It is globally recognized for its progressive constitution buttressed by an expansive system of rights and a …

Three Cases In Point: A Comparison Of Legal Access To Housing For Low-Income And Homeless Populations In Cape Town, Marseille And Miami, Leila Lawlor

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Miami, Cape Town, and Marseille have taken dissimilar approaches in their attempts to legislate and supply affordable housing to those in need. One of these cities has no justiciable right whatsoever, one has a right set out in its national constitution, and one has a right set out in its national law. These cities have had different degrees of success in aiding those in need of adequate housing; however, each of these cities continues to suffer from both a lack of affordable housing and a widening income gap. Examining the frameworks and the efforts of these three port cities establishes …

Legislating Safety Nets: Comparing Recent Social Protection Laws In Asia, Surabhi Chopra Prof.

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In recent years, several Asian countries have begun moving away from patchwork welfare programs toward providing more comprehensive social protection. This is a significant shift in a region where social welfare has not been politically popular, and the family has traditionally absorbed the burden of supporting the young, the old, and the ailing. Two of these states-India and Indonesia-have put new social protection initiatives into law rather than simply formulating executive policy. In this article, I examine recent social protection laws in both countries. I look in particular at India's National Food Security Law, passed in 2013, and Indonesia's laws …

The Right To Read, Lea Shaver

Lea Shaver

Reading – for education and for pleasure – may be framed as a personal indulgence, a moral virtue, or even a civic duty. What are the implications of framing reading as a human right?

Although novel, the rights-based frame finds strong support in international human rights law. The right to read need not be defended as a “new” human right. Rather, it can be located at the intersection of more familiar guarantees. Well-established rights to education, science, culture, and freedom of expression, among others, provide the necessary normative support for recognizing a universal right to read as already implicit in …

Combating Obesity With A Right To Nutrition, Paul Diller

Paul Diller

Domestic and international law have, in different ways, recognized a human right to food since the twentieth century. The original reason for this recognition was the need to alleviate a particular type of food insecurity—“traditional” hunger, as manifested in conditions like malnutrition and underweight. The current public-health crisis of obesity, however, demands a reconsideration of this right. The food environment in the United States today is awash in high-calorie, low-nutrient food products that are often cheaper, on a relative basis, than more nutritious foods, leading to the overconsumption of the former by much of the American population. Merely ensuring a …

The Enforcement Of Socioeconomic Rights And The Global Constitutional Canon, Emily Zackin

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

"New" Human Rights : U.S. Ambivalence Toward The International Economic And Social Rights Framework, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

Economic and social rights (including rights to food, adequate housing, public education, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, fair wages, decent labor conditions, and social security) still occupy a second-class, outsider status in official United States domestic and foreign policy. This is no accident. The full recognition and implementation of such rights pose a direct threat. But that threat is not primarily to democracy or American values as some believe. Rather, because they demonstrate our system's failures to achieve equality, they threaten the deeply held belief that our country has already achieved a truly representative, human rights-based …

Litigating Against An Epidemic: Hiv/Aids And The Promise Of Socioeconomic Rights In South Africa, Nathaniel Bruhn

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

With one of the highest incidence rates in the world, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has taken a large toll on South Africa. Despite medical advances that have made the disease more manageable, many South Africans still do not have access to the medicines needed to control the disease. At the same time, the Constitution of South Africa grants individuals far-reaching socioeconomic rights, including the right to access health care. This Comment explores the intersection of the socioeconomic rights and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Although the Constitutional Court has developed a deferential approach to enforcing socioeconomic rights, substantial room remains to litigate on …

Human Rights And Development For India's Rural Remnant: A Capabilities-Based Assessment, Lisa Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

The cachet that India currently enjoys on the world stage is linked largely to the booming high-tech and service economies associated with its megacities. Yet in terms of sheer numbers, India is not an urban nation. About a third of India’s population lives in urban areas, though that figure is rising quickly. One projection indicates that thirty-one villagers will continue to show up in an Indian city every minute over the next forty-three years — 700 million people in all.

Lack of sustainable development in rural areas is a major force behind the massive rural-to-urban migration across Asia. An enormous …

Junior Bar Law Review 1 (2010), 21-40 Judicial Activism Revisited: Reflecting On The Role Of Judges In Enforcing Economic, Social And Cultural Rights, Gehan D. Gunatilleke Mr.

Gehan D Gunatilleke Mr.

Following the conclusion of military operations in Sri Lanka in 2009, the issue of economic development and distributive justice appears to have remerged on the country’s agenda. Within this post-conflict context, the judiciary in Sri Lanka is confronted with a major challenge in terms of defining its proper role in the promotion of Economic Social and Cultural (“ESC”) rights. The precise extent to which judges should be ‘activist’ in promoting these rights should be contrasted with the level of activism required of judges in the sphere of civil and political rights. Advocating ESC rights in Sri Lanka simply cannot be …

Engagement's Possibilities And Limits As A Socioeconomic Rights Remedy, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article first analyzes the Constitutional Court of South Africa's three engagement decisions. It then divides engagement into two different categories--litigation engagement and political engagement--and offers suggestions for transforming the process into a more effective remedy in each category. Drawing on the work of Charles Epp, this Article argues that political engagement, if structured correctly, offers the greatest potential as an effective mechanism for enforcing socioeconomic rights. Realization of that potential will require a sustained commitment by civil society organizations active in socioeconomic rights issues and a shift from using engagement as a litigation tactic to using it as a …

From Outrage To Action, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Kristof and WuDunn provide a vivid panoramic view of problems faced by women (primarily in the “developing” world), what has been done and what more could be done to help them achieve dignity and autonomy in their lives, and how vindication of their rights could contribute to the broader social development of their societies. In this they provide us with important insights into how human rights might be effectively proclaimed and successfully implemented. In reviewing their considerable contributions, I shall also suggest some limitations on both their analysis and their policy recommendations.

Extending The Shadow Of The Law: Using Hybrid Mechanisms To Establish Constitutional Norms In Socioeconomic Rights Cases, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article challenges the general perception that ADR processes cannot develop public law norms. It follows a recent trend in ADR literature that seeks to define a public norm creation role for ADR in part by connecting these processes to other alternative legal and political problem-solving methods. This Article focuses on a recent South African Constitutional Court case, Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road v City of Johannesburg, in which the court interpreted the right to housing in the South African Constitution. The court held that municipalities must develop processes for negotiating - or, in the court's language "engaging" - with …

Policentrism, Political Moblization, And The Promise Of Socioeconomic Rights, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

There is an active and heated debate over whether socioeconomic rights should be included in modern constitutions because of their supposed "positive" character and the difficult separation-of-powers and institutional-competence concerns such rights raise. The controversy over the nature of socioeconomic rights and whether constitutions should include them is connected to the issue of how to enforce these rights when they are included. The South African Constitutional Court is the leading example of a court dealing with these enforcement issues, and its early decisions have been hailed by many, including Mark Tushnet and Cass Sunstein, as developing a uniquely effective approach …

The Duty Of Treatment: Human Rights And The Hiv/Aids Pandemic, Noah B. Novogrodsky

Noah B Novogrodsky

This article argues that the treatment of HIV and AIDS is spawning a juridical, advocacy and enforcement revolution. The intersection of AIDS and human rights was once characterized almost exclusively by anti-discrimination and destigmatization efforts. Today, human rights advocates are demanding life-saving treatment and convincing courts and legislatures to make states pay for it. Using a comparative Constitutional law methodology that places domestic courts at the center of the struggle for HIV treatment, this article shows how the provision of AIDS medications is reframing the right to health and the implementation of socio-economic rights. First, it locates an emerging right …

"New" Human Rights : U.S. Ambivalence Toward The International Economic And Social Rights Framework, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

Economic and social rights (including rights to food, adequate housing, public education, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, fair wages, decent labor conditions, and social security) still occupy a second-class, outsider status in official United States domestic and foreign policy. This is no accident. The full recognition and implementation of such rights pose a direct threat. But that threat is not primarily to democracy or American values as some believe. Rather, because they demonstrate our system's failures to achieve equality, they threaten the deeply held belief that our country has already achieved a truly representative, human rights-based …

Making America "The Land Of Second Chances": Restoring Socioeconomic Rights For Ex-Offenders, Deborah N. Archer, Kele Stewart

Articles

No abstract provided.