Social Rights Judgments and the Politics of Compliance: Making it Stick

The past few decades have witnessed an explosion of judgments on social rights around the world. However, we know little about whether these rulings have been implemented. Social Rights Judgments and the Politics of Compliance is the first book to engage in a comparative study of compliance of social rights judgments as well as their broader effects. Covering fourteen different domestic and international jurisdictions, and drawing on multiple disciplines, it finds significant variance in outcomes and reveals both spectacular successes and failures in making social rights a reality on the ground. This variance is strikingly similar to that found in previous studies on civil rights, and the key explanatory factors lie in the political calculus of defendants and the remedial framework. The book also discusses which strategies have enhanced implementation, and focuses on judicial reflexivity, alliance building and social mobilisation.

Malcolm Langford is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Universitetet i Oslo and Co-Director of the Centre on Law and Social Transformation, Chr. Michelsen Institute and Universitetet i Bergen, Norway.

César Rodríguez-Garavito is Executive Director of the Center for Law, Justice, and Society (Dejusticia) and Associate Professor of Law at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Julieta Rossi is Associate Professor at the Centre for Justice and Human Rights, National University of Lanús, and Researcher and advisor to the Human Rights Commission at the Legislature (Senator Chamber) of the Province of Buenos Aires.