The State of Economic and Social Human Rights: A Global Overview

This edited volume offers original scholarship on economic and social human rights from leading and new cutting-edge scholars in the fields of economics, law, political science, sociology, and anthropology. It analyzes the core economic and social rights and the crucial topic of nondiscrimination, and includes an innovative section on “meta” rights. The main chapters answer important questions about economic and social rights performance around the world by emphasizing the obstacles that prevent governments from fulfilling their obligations. The interdisciplinary analysis offers a detailed and up-to-date discussion to help scholars and policy makers find the best ways to instantiate economic and social rights. The authors examine the role of the associated obligations, and especially the obstacles to respect, protect, and fulfill those obligations. The book's introductory and concluding chapters address conceptual issues and correct mistakes often made by critics of economic and social rights.

Lanse Minkler is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut and former Director of Socio-Economic Rights and Co-Founder of the Economic and Social Rights Research Group at the university's Human Rights Institute. His earlier research concerned worker knowledge contributions and worker motivations and the intersection between ethics and economics, which resulted in his book Integrity and Agreement: Economics When Principles Also Matter (2008). His current research interests center on human rights, particularly on the right to work and constitutionalizing economic and social rights. He co-edited Economic Rights: Conceptual, Measurement, and Policy Issues (with Shareen Hertel, 2007) and has published in Human Rights Quarterly and the Journal of Human Rights. Previously, he served on the Editorial Board and was Associate Editor for the Review of Social Economy.