Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law

Contemporary Issues and Challenges

Edited by Eibe Riedel, Gilles Giacca, and Christophe Golay

Provides a comprehensive overview of the implementation and protection of international economic, social, and cultural rights at the international and national level
Assesses the manner in which individual claims can now be addressed by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Analyses the key remaining challenges for the universal realization of ESC rights, including non-discriminatory implementation, the impact of the financial crisis, and their relationship with other branches of international law

Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law

Contemporary Issues and Challenges

Edited by Eibe Riedel, Gilles Giacca, and Christophe Golay

Description

Recent years have seen a remarkable expansion in the scale and importance of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESC rights) within international law, culminating in the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in December 2008, which gave individuals and groups the ability to bring complaints about rights violations before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this context, this book centres on the question of how the fundamental socio-economic human rights that are enshrined in international law are defined, interpreted, understood, and implemented. It assesses how effective efforts have been in realising ESC rights by investigating the contemporary challenges obstructing their protection. It investigates the impact of the global financial crisis and austerity measures, the human rights responsibilities of corporations, and the trends in the justiciability of those rights at the national and international level. The interrelationship between ESC rights and other legal regimes such as international economic law, trade and investment law, environmental law, international criminal law, or international humanitarian law is also thoroughly examined. It provides a careful analysis of the new tools and indicators available to measure the progressive realisation of ESC rights.

This book clarifies and illuminates multiple aspects of the law governing ESC rights by bringing together the different aspects of ESC rights, restating the challenges they face, and assessing the progress that has been made in expanding their adoption. After an introduction by the editors on ESC rights and the contemporary issues that impact their realisation, the book contains seventeen further essays on the main questions which couch the progressive realisation of ESC rights and their monitoring mechanisms. The authors of the chapters, both scholars and practitioners, adopt interdisciplinary approaches that move beyond traditional analyses of ESC rights, contextualising their discussions through wider contemporary international law challenges. In reflecting this diversity of perspectives, this book sheds light on new methodologies for the implementation of ESC rights as well as the various obstacles they face.

Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law

Contemporary Issues and Challenges

Edited by Eibe Riedel, Gilles Giacca, and Christophe Golay

I. Introduction
1:The Development of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law, Gilles Giacca, Christophe Golay, and Eibe Riedel
II. Challenges in the Protection of ESC Rights in Times of Crisis
2:The Sovereign Bond Markets and Socio-Economic Rights: Understanding the Challenge of Austerity, Mary Dowell-Jones
3:Economic and Social Rights in the 'Great Recession': Towards a Human Rights-Centered Economic Policy in Times of Crisis, Sally-Anne Way, Nicholas Lusiani, and Ignacio Saiz
4:Realising Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights for All, Sandra Ratjen and Manav Satija
5:Gender and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Christine Chinkin
III. International Dimension of ESC Rights Obligations
6:The Nature and Meaning of 'International Assistance and Cooperation' under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Takhima Karimova
7:Corporations and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Olivier De Schutter
IV. The Relationship between ESC Rights and Other Legal Regimes
8:Trade and Investment Agreements: What Role for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in international Economic Law?, Hans Morten Haugen
9:Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in the World Trade Organization: Legal Aspects and Practice, Holger P. Hestermayer
10:From the Other Shore: Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights from an International Environmental Law Perspective, Stephanie Chuffart and Jorge E. Viñuales
11:The Relationship between Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and International Humanitarian Law, Gilles Giacca
12:Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: International Criminal Law's Blind Spot?, Larissa van den Herik
V. New Concepts and Tools to Measure the Progressive Realization of ESC Rights
13:Budget Analysis and Economic and Social Rights, Aoife Nolan
14:Human Rights Impact Assessments: Emerging Practice and Challenges, Simon Walker
VI. Trends in the Justiciability and Monitoring of ESC Rights at the National and International Level
15:Judicial Review in National Courts: Recognition and Responsiveness, Malcolm Langford
16:The Intersection of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and Civil and Political Rights, Ioana Cismas
17:Building Bridges: National Human Rights Institutions and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Allison Corkery and Duncan Wilson
18:Transitional Justice Without Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights?, Frannk Halderman and Rachelle Kouassi

Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law

Contemporary Issues and Challenges

Edited by Eibe Riedel, Gilles Giacca, and Christophe Golay

Author Information

Edited by Eibe Riedel, Emeritus Professor of German and Comparative Public Law, and European and International Law, University of Mannheim, Gilles Giacca, Research Fellow, University of Oxford, and Christophe Golay, Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Eibe Riedel is Emeritus Chair of German and Comparative Public Law and European and International Law at the University of Mannheim, Germany, Swiss Human Rights Chair at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva. He studied law and theology at King's College London, and law at the University of Kiel. He obtained his Dr. iuris in 1974 and Dr. iur. habil. in 1983. He has been a Professor of Public Law and International Law at the University of Mainz, then at the University of Marburg, then at Mannheim. Prof. Riedel has recently been appointed a Judge at the Hague Court of Arbitration. He is a Director of the Inland Navigation Law Institute, and the Director of the Institute of Medical Law, Bioethics and Public Health. He was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Mannheim from 1996-2000.

Dr Gilles Giacca is a Research Fellow at the Law Faculty and Co-ordinator of the Oxford Martin School Human Rights for Future Generations programme. He holds a MA from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva and a LLM from the University of Essex and holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Geneva and IHEID. Between 2006 and 2012, Gilles Giacca was teaching assistant and then research fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law. Gilles has advised States, international organizations and NGOs on matters of international law. He has also provided training on international law to diplomats and practitioners. His teaching interests include the law of armed conflict and international human rights law.

Dr Christophe Golay is Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. From 2001 to 2008, he was the Legal Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. He teaches courses on ESC rights, the right to food, and human rights and development in different universities. He has published extensively on ESC rights in general and the right to food in particular.

Contributors:

Christine Chinkin - London School of Economics and Political Science
Stéphanie Chuffard - Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Ioana Cismas - Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Allison Corkery - Center for Economic and Social Rights
Olivier De Schutter - UN Special Raporteur on the right to food, Columbia Law School
Mary Dowell-Jones - University of Nottingham
Michelle Foster - Melbourne Law School
Frank Haldemann - Geneva Academy
Hans Morten Haugen - Diakonhjemmet Høgskole University
Holger P. Hestermeyer - Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
Tahmina Karimova - Geneva Academy of International humanitarian law and human rights
Rachelle Kouassi - Geneva Academy
Malcolm Langford - Norwegian Centre for Human Rights
Aoife Nolan - Nottingham University
Sandra Ratjen - International Commission of Jurists
Ignazio Saiz - Executive Director, Center for Economic and Social Rights
Nico Schrijver - Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University
Sigrun Skogly - Lancaster University
Larissa van den Herik - Leiden University
Jorge E. Viñuales - Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Simon Walker - UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Sally-Anne Way - University of Essex
Duncan Wilson - Scottish Human Rights Commission