In the last fifteen years, judicial claims to secure health services as a matter of right have become an important phenomenon in a number of countries including South Africa, India, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Costa Rica. Little systematic empirical information is available with respect to the impact on health financing of such litigation. However, a […]

This article commends the concise and useful analysis of courts and the legal enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights given in Christian Courtis’ book, Courts and the Legal Enforcement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Comparative Experiences of Justiciability. Yet, in order to complete the picture, a broader analysis of the enabling conditions for […]

This article aims to organize thinking around human rights-based approaches to development (HRBAs) and to review available empirical evidence regarding their benefits, risks, and limitations. We propose a typology distinguishing four types of rights-based approaches: global compliance based on international and regional treaties; human rights-based programming on the part of donors and governments; rights talk; […]

Why do courts hold political power-holders accountable in some democratic and democratizing countries, but not in others?  And, why do some courts remain very timid while others—under seemingly similar circumstances—become “hyper-active”? These are questions of central theoretical and practical importance in a context of increasing juridification of politics in many parts of the world, combined […]