Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Etablissement : Faculté de Droit – Lille et Issy-les-Moulineaux
Langue : Anglais
Formation(s) dans laquelle/lesquelles le cours apparait :
Période : S1
Social and economic rights, often in the form of ‘positive’ constitutional obligations, have emerged as an important ingredient of the global model of contemporary domestic constitutions. This course is designed as an introductory 24-hours seminar course on these rights for graduate law students.
The students will be introduced to the comparative variation, textual design and jurisprudential diversity of these rights during the course of 9 modules. The students will be invited to study case studies by focusing on specific rights across jurisdictions and multiple rights within each jurisdiction. These intersecting case studies will offer an opportunity to the students to analyse how discrete socio-economic rights (for example, the right to education, health, housing) are interpreted and enforced in a comparative context. They will also allow them to cultivate familiarity with discrete jurisdictional contexts (for example, South Africa, India, Colombia).
The course will also give an opportunity to students to ask two questions that run as a theme throughout this course: what makes constitutional socio-economic rights legitimate and to what extent are they efficacious? In terms of legitimacy, the students will be invited to focus on philosophical theories of socio-economic and positive rights, limits of judicial enforcement and theories of constitutional interpretation. In terms of efficacy, the students will be invited to focus on whether and to what extent the demand (viz. civil groups, social movements, individuals or institutions) and supply (viz. constitutional text, court structure, political structure, institutional and legal culture) sides of socio-economic rights litigation result in success.
