NUI Galway | School of Law | Irish Centre for Human Rights | LL.M 2014/15
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & CULTURAL RIGHTS
LW417
Dr. John Reynolds * john.j.reynolds@gmail.com
Description
Economic, social & cultural rights promise to all the material means to attain satisfactory standards of
living in an egalitarian society, and the socio-cultural agency to influence an enlightened society. An
expansive reading of economic, social & cultural rights thus implies a radically progressive politics,
structural social change and distributive justice. In practice, however, where such rights have
materialised, it has primarily been as individual trumps in isolated cases. They remain constrained by the
indeterminacy of law and the conservatism of legal institutions, and limited by the dictates of orthodox
economics. In the mainstream, the views expressed by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
Jeanne Kirkpatrick, continue to hold sway: economic, social & cultural rights are of no more tangible
value than ‘a letter to Santa Claus’. So while on paper all human rights may be indivisible and
interdependent (and important legal actors such as South Africa’s Constitutional Court have asserted
that the very ideas of democracy and justice will continue to ‘ring hollow’ where socio-economic rights
are not realised), an undeniable hierarchy – that privileges civil & political rights and reinforces a ‘marketfriendly’ conception of human rights – has pervaded the institutional, academic and public
consciousness.
The course will begin by interrogating what lies behind this bias, placing economic, social &
cultural rights in historical, ideological and philosophical perspective. As the semester proceeds, we will
explore the substantive rights, procedures and implementation mechanisms in systems of international,
regional and domestic human rights law that seek to protect and fulfil economic, social & cultural rights.
What are socio-economic rights and on what terms are they justified? Does every individual hold, for
example, a right to a house, or a right to a free education, or a right to a constant supply of water? Are
such things ‘legal’ rights, in a judicially enforceable sense, or social aspirations whose availability
inevitably oscillates with the politics of the day and the whims of the market? What is the relationship
between economic development and socio-economic rights? What does the pervasiveness of models of
neo-liberalism and austerity mean for socio-economic rights? What are the mechanisms for claiming
economic, social and cultural rights? To what extent, if any, can they be claimed collectively? How can
they be best articulated to overcome the structural biases and practical obstacles that they face?
On the domestic plane, there has been much debate over the ‘justiciability’ of socio-economic
rights in national courts. While undoubtedly an important site of struggle, should the legal system, in
narrow terms, be the primary focus when it comes to access to basic material needs or the reduction of
socio-economic inequalities? Should more attention be directed towards budget allocation and public
finance decisions, as the most pertinent sites for the ‘progressive realisation’ of socio-economic rights in
the transformative societal sense? Elections are won and lost on the basis of such decisions. Socioeconomic rights are, as such, as contingent on ideology and policy as they are on legality; struggles for
their realisation, therefore, go beyond the courts and formal legal institutions.
On the international plane, economic, social & cultural rights raise pivotal questions about the
structure of the international economic order: the legacies of colonialism, the effects of late capitalism
and the hegemony of international trade and investment regimes. We will examine the extent to which
distributive justice on an international scale, and the discourse around the right to development, for
example, are constrained by global economic structures. The phenomenon of ‘land-grabbing’, and its
implications for economic, social & cultural rights in the global South in particular, will also be explored.
The emerging normative push towards extra-territorial obligations in the sphere of economic, social &
cultural rights holds potentially important implications for states and multinational corporations alike, but
will not easily gain traction in the face of powerful financial interests. The challenges for socio-economic
rights advocates in redressing domestic and global inequalities thus remain immense. This course aims
to help students to understand and analyse the roots and scale of these challenges, and to develop the
tools and thinking necessary to tackle them.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the course students will be able to:
! understand the ideological contestations in human rights discourse vis-à-vis economic, social &
cultural rights;
! understand the content of human rights law in terms of economic, social & cultural rights, and the
workings of the relevant institutional frameworks at domestic, regional and international level;
! engage with legal, policy and economic arguments with respect to social, economic & cultural
rights;
! critically evaluate the social, economic & cultural rights regime, highlighting lacunae within the law
and barriers to progress.
Schedule & Format
Second Semester, first eight weeks, Thursdays 5-8pm
The course will be taught in weekly three-hour seminars, at which attendance is expected. An outline of
the course is detailed below with the assigned readings for each seminar. Students are encouraged to
express their understandings/views on the readings and the issues raised. Each week’s material
includes required reading from core texts, articles and cases. Further recommended materials on the
given topic are also provided for the students’ own interests and research. Students are of course free to
go beyond the materials listed, and raise issues and ideas of their own where relevant to the particular
seminar. Readings that are unavailable through the library or its online databases will be provided via the
Blackboard system.
Assessment
Essay (80%) – submission of an essay which demonstrates significant research and which critically
evaluates the literature available on a chosen topic. Case studies to illuminate the research topic are
encouraged.
Group presentation (20%) – short presentation in groups of 3-4 to be made in class on topics assigned
by the lecturer, in consultation with students.
Useful websites / resources
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UN Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: http://unctad.org/
Centre for Economic and Social Rights: http://www.cesr.org/
International Network for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights: http://www.escr-net.org/
War on Want: http://www.waronwant.org/
Bretton Woods Project: http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/
Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org/en/economic-social-and-cultural-rights
Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa: http://www.seri-sa.org/
National Economic & Social Rights Initiative: www.nesri.org/
FoodFirst Information and Action Network: www.fian.org
Circle of Rights: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/IHRIP/circle/toc.htm
Legal Empowerment of the Poor: http://www.lepnet.org/
Nazdeek: http://nazdeek.org/
Comhlámh: http://www.comhlamh.org/
UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights: website
UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing: website
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education: website
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: http://www.srfood.org/
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health: website
UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation: website
UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights: website
General Texts
Recommended texts:
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Asbjorn Eide, Catarina Krause & Allan Rosas (eds.), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(Martinus Nijhoff, 2nd edn., 2001)
o
Mashood A. Baderin & Robert McCorquodale (eds.), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in
Action (Oxford University Press, 2007)
o
Manisuli Ssenyonjo, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in International Law (Hart, 2009)
o
Paul O'Connell, Vindicating Socio-Economic Rights: International Standards and Comparative
Experiences (Routledge, 2012)
o
Manual Couret Branco, Economics Versus Human Rights (Routledge, 2009)
Additional texts:
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Margot Salomon, Global Responsibility for Human Rights: World Poverty and the Development
of International Law (Oxford University Press, 2007)
o
Thomas W. Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights (Polity, 2nd edn., 2008)
o
Conor Gearty & Virginia Mantouvalou, Debating Social Rights (Hart, 2010)
o
Aoife Nolan, Rory O'Connell & Colin Harvey (eds.), Human Rights and Public Finance: Budget
Analysis and the Promotion of Economic and Social Rights (Hart, 2013)
o
M. Rodwan Abouharb & David Cingranelli, Human Rights and Structural Adjustment
(Cambridge University Press, 2007)
o
Anthony George Ravlich, Freedom from Our Social Prisons: The Rise of Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights (Lexington, 2008)
o
B.G. Ramcharan, Judicial Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Cases &
Materials (Martinus Nijhoff, 2005)
o
Matthew Craven, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A
Perspective on its Development (Oxford University Press, 1998)
o
Fons Coomans (ed.), Justiciability of Economic and Social Rights: Experiences from Domestic
Systems (Intersentia, 2006)
o
Anne Gallagher & Scott Leckie (eds.), Economic, Social & Cultural Rights: A Legal Resource
Guide (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006)
o
Bard A. Andreassan & Stephen P. Marks, Development as a Human Right (Intersentia, 2010)
o
Malcolm Langford, Wouter Vandenhole, Martin Scheinin & Willem van Genugten (eds.), Global
Justice, State Duties: The Extraterritorial Scope of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in
International Law (Cambridge University Press 2012)
o
Fons Coomans, Cases and Concepts on Extraterritorial Obligations in the Area of Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (Intersentia, 2012)
o
Mesganaw Mulugeta Assefa, A Dead End or a New Beginning?: The Place of Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights in the Responsibility to Protect (Lap Lambert, 2011)
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Henry J. Steiner, Philip Alston & Ryan Goodman, International Human Rights in Context: Law,
Politics, Morals (Clarendon Press, 3rd edn., 2008)
Course Outline
1. Competing Ideologies?: Socio-Economic Rights in a Capitalist World
Assigned reading:
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Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness (Signet, 1964)
" Chapter 12, ‘Man’s Rights’ 69-74
o
David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press, 2007)
" Chapter 6, ‘Neoliberalism on Trial’ # ‘On Rights’ 175-182
o
Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights (Oxford University Press, 2nd edn., 2006)
" Chapter 8, ‘The Emergence of an Alternate Paradigm of Human Rights’ 234-275
o
Paul O’Connell, ‘On Reconciling Irreconcilables: Neo-liberal Globalisation and Human Rights’
(2007) 7 Human Rights Law Review 483-509
o
Marius Pieterse, ‘Eating Socioeconomic Rights: The Usefulness of Rights Talk in Alleviating
Social Hardship Revisited’ (2007) 29 Human Rights Quarterly 796-822
Further reading:
o
Karl Marx, ‘On the Jewish Question’ (1844) Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher
o
Anthony George Ravlich, Freedom from Our Social Prisons: The Rise of Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights (Lexington, 2008)
" Chapter 3, ‘The Politics of Human Rights and the Liberal Oligarchy’
o
Manual Couret Branco, Economics Versus Human Rights (Routledge, 2009)
" Chapter 1, ‘Economics and Human Rights Lost in Translation’ 8-24
o
Paul O'Connell, ‘The Death of Socio-Economic Rights’ (2011) 74:4 Modern Law Review 532554
o
Tony Evans, ‘International Human Rights Law as Power/Knowledge’ (2005) 27:3 Human
Rights Quarterly 1046-1068
o
Tony Evans, The Politics of Human Rights (Pluto, 2nd edn., 2005)
" Chapter 4, ‘The Political Economy of Human Rights’ 77-100
o
Susan Marks, ‘Human Rights and Root Causes’ (2011) 74:1 Modern Law Review 57-78
o
Makau Mutua, ‘The Ideology of Human Rights’ (1996) 36 Virginia Journal of International Law
589-657
o
Costas Douzinas, ‘Seven Theses on Human Rights’, Critical Legal Thinking, May-June 2013
& Anthony J. Langois, ‘Seven Counter-theses on Human Rights’, 29 July 2013
o
Stephen Gill, ‘Constitutionalizing Inequality & the Clash of Globalizations’ (2002) 4:3
International Studies Review 47-65
o
Aryeh Neier, ‘Social and Economic Rights: A Critique’ (2006) 13 Human Rights Brief 1-3
o
Daphne Barak-Erez & Aeyal Gross, ‘Introduction: Do We Need Social Rights? Questions in
the Era of Globalisation, Privatisation, and the Diminished Welfare State’ in Exploring Social
Rights: Between Theory and Practice (Hart, 2007) 1-17
2. Socio-Economic Rights as Human Rights: The International Framework
Assigned reading:
o
Asbjorn Eide & Allan Rosas, ‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Universal Challenge’
& Asbjorn Eide, ‘Economic, Social & Cultural Rights as Human Rights’ in Eide, Krause &
Rosas (eds.) 3-28
o
Vinodh Jaichand, ‘An Introduction to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Overcoming the
Constraints of Categorization through Implementation’ in Azizur Chowdhury & Jahid
Bhuiyan (eds.), An Introduction to International Human Rights Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2010)
o
Shedrack Agbakwa, ‘Reclaiming Humanity: Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights as the
Cornerstone of African Human Rights’ (2002) 5 Yale Human rights & Development Law
Journal 177-216
o
International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights [bring to class]
Further reading:
o
Paul O'Connell, Vindicating Socio-Economic Rights (Routledge, 2012)
" Chapter 1, ‘Introduction’ 1-21
" Chapter 2, ‘International Standards on Socio-Economic Rights’ 22-47
o
Mashood Baderin & Robert McCorquodale, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action
" Chapter 3, ‘The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Forty
Years of Development’
o
Anthony George Ravlich, Freedom from Our Social Prisons: The Rise of Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights (Lexington, 2008)
" Chapter 4, ‘The History of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Most
Disadvantaged’
o
Amnesty International, ‘Human Rights for Human Dignity – A Primer on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights’ (2005)
o
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 3 (1990) –
The Nature of States Parties Obligations
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Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1997)
o
Henry J. Steiner, Philip Alston & Ryan Goodman, International Human Rights in Context:
Law, Politics, Morals (Clarendon Press, 3rd edn., 2008) 263-313
o
Fons Coomans, ‘The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ in F.
Isa Gomez & Koen de Feyter (eds.), International Human Rights Law in a Global Context
(Deusto University Press, 2009) 293-317
o
Craig Scott, ‘Reaching Beyond (Without Abandoning) the Category of “Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights”’ (1999) 21 Human Rights Quarterly 633-660
o
Manisuli Asenyonjo, ‘Non-State Actors and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ in
Baderin & McCorquodale (eds.) 109-135
o
Sigrun Skogly, ‘Is There a Right Not to be Poor?’ (2002) 2 Human Rights Law Review 59-80
3. The Right to Health & Questions of ‘Justiciability’
Assigned reading:
o
Martin Scheinen, ‘Economic and Social Rights as Legal Rights’, in Eide, Krause & Rosas (eds.)
29-54
o
Paul O'Connell, Vindicating Socio-Economic Rights (Routledge, 2012)
" Chapter 4, ‘Developing Social Rights in India’ 78-107
o
Brigit Toebes, ‘The Right to Health’ in Eide, Krause & Rosas (eds.) 169-190
o
Minister of Health and Others v. Treatment Action Campaign and Others, Constitutional Court
of South Africa 2002 (5) SA 721 (CC) (5 July 2002)
o
Conor Gearty, ‘Resisting Law’s Empire’, The Rights Future, 6 December 2010
Further reading:
o
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14 (2000) –
The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health
o
Soobramoney v. Minister of Health, KwaZulu-Natal, Constitutional Court of South Africa, Case
32/97 [1997] ZACC 17 (27 November 1997)
o
John Tobin, The Right to Health in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2012)
o
Manisuli Ssenyonjo, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in International Law (Hart, 2009)
" Chapter 8, ‘The Right to Health: Article 8’
o
Tony Evans, ‘A Human Right to Health?’ (2002) 23:2 Human Rights Quarterly 197-215
o
Paul O'Connell, ‘The Human Right to Health in an Age of Market Hegemony’ in Harrington &
Stuttaford (eds.), Global Health and Human Rights: Legal and Philosophical Perspectives
(Routledge, 2010) 190
o
Paul O'Connell, ‘The Human Right to Health and the Privatisation of Irish Health Care’ (2005)
11:2 Medico-Legal Journal of Ireland 76
o
Paul O'Connell, Vindicating Socio-Economic Rights (Routledge, 2012)
" Chapter 6, ‘The Rejection of Socio-Economic Rights in Ireland’ 138-167
o
Alicia Ely Yamin, ‘Defining Questions: Situating Issues of Power in the Formulation of a Right to
Health under International Law’ (1996) 18 Human Rights Quarterly 398-438
o
Sheetal Shah, ‘Illuminating the Possible in the Developing World: Guaranteeing the Human
Right to Health in India’ (1999) 32 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 435-467
o
Obijiofor Aginam, ‘Global Village, Divided World: South-North Gap and Global Health
Challenges at Century’s Dawn’ (2000) 7 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 603–628
o
Lisa Forman, ‘An Elementary Consideration of Humanity? Linking Trade-Related Intellectual
Property Rights to the Human Right to Health in International Law’ (2011) 14:2 Journal of World
Intellectual Property 155-175
4. The Right to Work & Rights at Work
Assigned reading:
o
Krzysztof Drzewicki, ‘The Right to Work and Rights in Work’ in Eide, Krause & Rosas (eds.)
223-243
o
Manual Couret Branco, Economics Versus Human Rights (Routledge, 2009)
" Chapter 2, ‘Economics versus the right to work’ 25-49
o
Guy Mundlak, ‘The Right to Work—The Value of Work’ in Daphne Barak-Erez & Aeyal Gross,
Exploring Social Rights: Between Theory and Practice (Hart, 2007) 341–366
o
Conor Gearty, ‘Up With the Unions’, The Rights Future, 13 December 2010
o
George Osborne, Speech to the Conservative Party Conference, 8 October 2012
[www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2012/10/George_Osborne_Conference_2012.aspx]
Further reading:
o
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No.18 (2005) – The
Right to Work
o
International Labour Organisation, ‘ILO Principles Concerning the Right to Strike’ (1988)
o
Manisuli Ssenyonjo, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in International Law (Hart, 2009)
" Chapter 7, ‘Right to Work and Rights in Work: Articles 6 and 7’
o
Virginia Mantouvalou, ‘Are Labour Rights Human Rights?’ (2012) 3 European Labour Law
Journal 151-172
o
JL Rey Pérez, ‘The Right to Work Reassessed: How We Can Understand and Make Effective
the Right to Work’ (2005) 2:1 Rutgers Journal of Law & Urban Policy 217–37
o
Rory O’Connell, ‘The Right to Work in the European Convention on Human Rights’ (2012) 2
European Human Rights Law Review 176-190
o
General Federation of employees of the national electric power corporation (GENOP-DEI) and
Confederation of Greek Civil Servants’ Trade Unions (ADEDY) v. Greece, Complaint No.
66/2011, European Committee of Social Rights, Decision on the Merits, 23 May 2012
o
Watch: Joel Beinin, ‘Workers’ Struggles in the Arab Spring’, Portland State University, 25
February 2012 [www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB6mc4U8yTY]
o
Paul Lafargue, ‘The Right to Be Lazy’, Egalité (1880)
Recommended viewing:
o
Film:
Bread and Roses (Ken Loach, 2000)
o
Documentary:
Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976)
Which Side Are You On? (Ken Loach, 1985)
5. The Right to Food, the Global Land Grab, and Extra-territorial Obligations
Assigned reading:
o
Asbjorn Eide, ‘The Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, including the Right to Food’ in
Eide, Krause & Rosas (eds.) 133-148
o
Olivier De Schutter, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: Agribusiness and
the Right to Food’, UN Doc. A/HRC/13/33, 22 December 2009
o
Rajeev C. Patel, ‘Food Sovereignty: Power, Gender, and the Right to Food’ (2012) 9:6 PLoS
Medicine 1-4
o
Shona Hawkes & Jagjit Kaur Plahe, ‘Worlds Apart: The WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture and
the Right to Food in Developing Countries’ (2013) 34:1 International Political Science Review
21-38
o
Transnational Institute, ‘The Global Land Grab: A Primer’ (February 2013)
Further reading:
o
UN Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, General Comment No.12 (1999) – The
Right to Adequate Food
o
Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (Clarendon,
1981)
o
Jean Ziegler, Christophe Golay, Claire Mahon & Sally-Anne Way, The Fight for the Right to
Food: Lessons Learned (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
o
Christophe Golay, ‘The Right to Food and Access to Justice: Examples at the national, regional
and international levels’ (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2009)
o
Right to Food Campaign, ‘Supreme Court Orders on the Right to Food: A Tool for Action’
(October 2005), relating to the case of People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India &
Others, Supreme Court of India [http://www.righttofoodindia.org/orders/interimorders.html]
o
FoodFirst Information and Action Network, ‘Advancing the Right to Adequate Food at the
National Level: Some Lessons Learned’ (2010)
o
Combat Poverty Agency, ‘Rights-Based Approaches to Food Poverty in Ireland’ (2008)
o
Via Campesina, ‘Combatting Monsanto’ (March 2012)
o
Saturnino Borras & Eric Ross, ‘Land Rights, Conflict, and Violence Amid Neo-Liberal
Globalization’ (2007) 19 Peace Review 1–4
o
Olivier De Schutter, ‘The Green Rush: The Global Race for Farmland and the Rights of Land
Users’ (2011) 52 Harvard International Law Journal 503–561
o
Lorenzo Cotula, 'The International Political Economy of the Global Land Rush: A Critical
Appraisal of Trends, Scale, Geography and Drivers' (2012) 39 Journal of Peasant Studies 649680
o
Matthew Craven, ‘The Violence of Dispossession: Extra-Territoriality and Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights’ in Baderin & McCorquodale (eds.) 71-88
o
Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (2011)
6. The Right to Water
Assigned reading:
o
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 15 (2002) –
The Right to Water
o
Manual Couret Branco, Economics Versus Human Rights (Routledge, 2009)
" Chapter 3, ‘Economics Versus the Provision of Goods and Services’ # ‘Economics
versus the right to water’ 50-59
o
Jackie Dugard, ‘Civic Action and Legal Mobilisation: The Phiri Water Meters Case’ in Jeff
Handmaker & Remko Berkhout (eds,), Mobilising Social Justice in South Africa: Perspectives
from Researchers and Practitioners (Hivos, 2010) 71-99
o
Willem Assies, ‘David versus Goliath in Cochabamba: Water Rights, Neoliberalism, and the
Revival of Social Protest in Bolivia’ (2003) 30:3 Latin American Perspectives 14-36
Further reading:
o
Matthew Craven, ‘Some Thoughts on the Emergent Right to Water’ in E. Riedel & P. Rothen
(eds.), The Human Right to Water (2006) 37
o
Damon Barrett & Vinodh Jaichand, ‘The Right to Water, Privatised Water and Access to
Justice: Tackling United Kingdom Water Companies' Practices in Developing Countries’ (2007)
23 South African Journal on Human Rights 543-562
o
Inga Winkler, ‘Judicial Enforcement of the Human Right to Water – Case Law from South
Africa, Argentina and India’ (2008) 1 Law, Social Justice & Global Development Journal
o
Patrick Bond & Jackie Dugard ‘Water, Human Rights and Social Conflict: South African
Experiences’ (2008) 1 Law, Social Justice & Global Development Journal
o
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Climate Change and the Human Rights
to Water and Sanitation: Position Paper’ (2009)
o
Al-Haq, ‘Water For One People Only: Discriminatory Access and “Water-Apartheid” in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory’ (2013)
Recommended viewing:
o
Film:
También la lluvia [Even the Rain] (Icíar Bollaín, 2010)
o
Documentary:
Flow: For the Love of Water (Irena Salina, 2008)
Thirst (Alan Snitow, 2004)
7. The International Economic Order & the Right to Development
Assigned reading:
o
Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Tanzanian Publishing House, 1973)
" Chapter 1, ‘Some Questions on Development: What is Development? What is
Underdevelopment?’
o
Margot Salomon, ‘From NIEO to Now and the Unfinishable Story of Economic Justice’
(2013) 62 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 31-54
o
Thomas Pogge, ‘Severe Poverty as a Human Rights Violation’ in Thomas Pogge (ed.),
Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right: Who Owes What to the Very Poor (Oxford
University Press, 2007) 11-53
o
Declaration on the Right to Development, UN General Assembly Resolution 41/128 (4
December 1986)
o
Arne Vandenbogaerde, ‘The Right to Development in International Human Rights Law: A
Call for its Dissolution’ (2013) 31:2 Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 187-209
Further reading:
o
Vijay Prashad, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2012)
" Chapter 1, ‘The Demise of Northern Atlantic Liberalism’
o
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights (Polity, 2nd edn., 2008)
o
Raul Prebisch, The Economic Development of Latin America and its Principal Problems
(United Nations Department of Economic Affairs, 1950)
o
Mohammed Bedjaoui, Towards a New International Economic Order (Holmes & Meier,
1979)
o
Sundhya Pahuja, Decolonising International Law: Development, Economic Growth and the
Politics of Universality (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
" Chapter 2, ‘From Decolonisation to Developmental Nation State’ 44-94
o
Philip Alston, ‘Resisting the Merger and Acquisition of Human Rights by Trade Law: A
Reply to Petersmann’ (2002) 13:4 European Journal of International Law 815-844
o
Olivier De Schutter, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: Guiding
Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade and Investment Agreements’,
UN Doc. A/HRC/19/59/Add.5, 19 December 2011
o
Sarah Joseph, ‘Trade to Live or Live to Trade: The World Trade Organization,
Development, and Poverty’ in Baderin & McCorquodale (eds.) 389-416
o
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (Oxford University Press, 1999)
o
Stephen P. Marks (ed.), Implementing the Right to Development: The Role of International
Law (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2008)
o
Arjun Sengupta, ‘The Human Right to Development’ in Bard A. Andreassan & Stephen P.
Marks, Development as a Human Right (Intersentia, 2010)
o
Endorois Welfare Council v. Kenya, African Commission on Human and People’s Rights,
No. 276/2003, 4 February 2010
8. “It’s the Economy”: Rights, Economics and Austerity
Assigned reading:
o
Manual Couret Branco, Economics Versus Human Rights (Routledge, 2009)
" Conclusion, ‘Economics for Human Rights’ 134-147
o
Radhika Balakrishnan & Diane Elson, ‘Auditing Economic Policy in the Light of Obligations on
Economic and Social Rights’ (2008) 5:1 Essex Human Rights Review 1-19
o
Aoife Nolan, ‘Budget Analysis and Economic and Social Rights’ in Eibe Riedel, Gilles Giacca &
Christophe Golay, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Contemporary Issues and Challenges
(Oxford University Press, 2013)
o
Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, ‘Report of the Independent Expert on the Question of Human
Rights and Extreme Poverty: On the Human Rights Based Approach to Recovery from the
Global Economic and Financial Crises, with a Focus on those Living in Poverty’, UN Doc.
A/HRC/17/34, 17 March 2011
o
Centre for Economic & Social Rights, ‘Mauled by the Celtic Tiger: Human Rights in Ireland’s
Economic Meltdown’ (February 2012)
Further reading:
o
Paul O'Connell, ‘Let Them Eat Cake: Socio-Economic Rights in an Age of Austerity’ in Aoife
Nolan, Rory O'Connell & Colin Harvey (eds.), Human Rights and Public Finance: Budget
Analysis and the Promotion of Economic and Social Rights (Hart, 2013)
o
Hamish Jenkins, ‘Global Economic Governance and National Policy Autonomy in the Pursuit of
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’, Paper submitted to the Committee on Economic, Social &
Cultural Rights, UN Doc. E/C.12/2001/6, 12 March 2001
o
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Gil Scott-Heron, Whitey on the Moon (1969)
A rat done bit my sister Nell
With Whitey on the moon
Her face and arms began to swell
And Whitey's on the moon
I can't pay no doctor bills
But Whitey's on the moon
Ten years from now I'll be paying still
While Whitey's on the moon
You know, the man just upped my rent last night
Cause Whitey's on the moon
No hot water, no toilets, no lights
But Whitey's on the moon
I wonder why he's uppin' me?
Cause Whitey's on the moon?
Well I was already given him fifty a week
And now Whitey's on the moon
Taxes takin' my whole damn check
The junkies make me a nervous wreck
The price of food is goin up
And if all that crap wasn't enough
A rat done bit my sister nell
With Whitey on the moon
Her face and arms began to swell
And Whitey's on the moon
With all that money I made last year
For Whitey on the moon
How come I ain't got no money here?
Hmm, Whitey's on the moon
You know I just about had my fill
Of Whitey on the moon
I think I'll send these doctor bills
airmail special
(To Whitey on the moon)