SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Exploring Social Rights looks into the theoretical and practical implications of social rights. The book is organised in five parts. Part I considers theoretical aspects of social rights, and looks into their place within political and legal theory and within the human rights tradition; Part II looks at the status of social rights in international law, with reference to the challenge of globalisation and to the significance of specific regional regulation (such as the European System); Part III includes discussions of various legal systems which are of special interest in this area (Canada, South Africa, India and Israel); Part IV looks at the content of a few central social rights (such as the right to education and the right to health); and Part V discusses the relevance of social rights to distinct social groups (women and people with disabilities). The articles in the book, while using the category of social rights, also challenge the separation of rights into distinct categories and question the division of rights to ‘civil’ vs ‘social’ rights, from a perspective which considers all rights as ‘social’. This book will be of interest to anyone concerned with human rights, the legal protection of social rights and social policy.