Courting Social Justice
Judicial Enforcement of Social and Economic Rights in the Developing World

This book is a first-of-its-kind, five-country empirical study of the causes and consequences of social and economic rights litigation.

Varun Gauri (Edited by), Daniel M. Brinks (Edited by)

9780521145169, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 15 March 2010

384 pages, 9 b/w illus. 13 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

'The book offers a comparative analysis of five countries, South Africa, Brazil, India, Nigeria and Indonesia. Each case is rich in empirical data, as well as relevant social and political factors … This book is written to be accessible to both the serious empirical scholar of law and justice, as well as anyone interested in social justice and the protection of rights for disadvantaged populations. The ideas presented offer academics, scholars, and activists alike, the possibility of applying theoretical and empirical analysis to their own practices to further social justice … Overall, this book successfully merges theoretical analysis regarding the courts as policy makers and their ability to protect rights with empirical data through the case studies.' Jamila Smith-Loud, University of Maryland

This book is a five-country empirical study of the causes and consequences of social and economic rights litigation. Detailed studies of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and South Africa present systematic and nuanced accounts of court activity on social and economic rights in each country. The book develops new methodologies for analyzing the sources of and variation in social and economic rights litigation, explains why actors are now turning to the courts to enforce social and economic rights, measures the aggregate impact of litigation in each country, and assesses the relevance of the empirical findings for legal theory. This book argues that courts can advance social and economic rights under the right conditions precisely because they are never fully independent of political pressures.

1. Introduction: the elements of legalization, and the triangular shape of social and economic rights Varun Gauri and Daniel M. Brinks
2. Litigating for social justice in post-apartheid South Africa: a focus on health and education Jonathan Berger
3. Accountability for social and economic rights in Brazil Florian F. Hoffmann and Fernando R. N. M. Bentes
4. Courts and socio-economic rights in India Shylashri Shankar and Pratap Bhanu Mehta
5. The impact of economic and social rights in Nigeria: an assessment of the legal framework for implementing education and health as human rights Chidi Anselm Odinkalu
6. The implementation of the rights to health care and education in Indonesia Bivitri Susanti
7. A new policy landscape: legalizing social and economic rights in the developing world Helen Hershkoff
8. Transforming legal theory in the light of practice: the judicial application of social and economic rights to private orderings Daniel M. Brinks and Varun Gauri.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Law & society [LAQ]