- Commentator: Mattias Kumm, Wissenshaftszentrum Berlin (WZB) and New York University School of Law
- Supervisors: Geir Ulfstein and Andreas Føllesdal.
- Time and place: May 30, 2012 01:30 PM, NCHR Seminar room
The midway evaluation is included in the programme of the PhD course The Human Rights Judiciary: Status and Scenarios.
Abstract
This thesis asks an old question in a contemporary context. Is the adjudication of social rights legitimate and effective, and under what conditions? Such a delegation of authority generates normative and legal legitimacy concerns as well as a realist critique that it will be ineffective in practically securing the rights.
The thesis proceeds by arguing for a ‘responsive’ model of adjudication, legally positivist but receptive to the contextualised claims of both victims and lawmakers.
The model is scrutinised by examining five sites of debate: the status of social rights as human rights, the interpretive and institutional competence of adjudicators, the democratic legitimacy of judicial review, the protectiveness of judicial outcomes and the impact of litigation on social transformation.
The analysis is situated within legal and political philosophy but draws deeply on human rights jurisprudence and political science while employing a range of qualitative and quantitative methods. A separate chapter addresses the applicability of the model at the supranational level.