Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is a collection of seminal papers examining legal, conceptual and practical questions regarding the international legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights. The volume discusses what human rights obligations economic, social and cultural rights entail for states and non-state actors; the nature and scope of substantive economic, social and cultural rights such as education, health, work, water, enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress, and cultural rights; as well as the justiciability of these rights at an international level and at the national level. The paramount importance of such questions is illustrated, among other things, by the catastrophic situation of economic, social and cultural rights as human rights in developing and developed states. The volume is divided into three main parts which focus on human rights obligations for states and non-state actors arising from treaties protecting economic, social and cultural rights; analysis of selected substantive rights; and finally the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights in various contexts such as within the United Nations, Europe, Inter-American, and African systems, as well as within the domestic system.

Chapter 1 Introduction -- chapter 2 New Cosmologies: Mapping the Postcolonial Feminist Legal Project -- chapter Liberal internationalism and the capabilities approach -- chapter 3 Erotic Disruptions: Legal Narratives of Culture, Sex and Nation in India -- chapter Narratives of culture, sex, nation -- chapter The Bandit Queen -- chapter Homosexuality -- chapter 4 The Tragedy of Victimisation Rhetoric: Resurrecting the 'Native' Subject in International/Postcolonial Feminist Legal Politics -- chapter Cultural essentialism -- chapter 'Death by culture' -- chapter 5 The Other Side of Universality: Cross-Border Movements and the Transnational Migrant Subject -- chapter Colonial subjects and the meaning of 'universality' -- chapter The Other in the contemporary moment -- chapter (b) Equating migration with trafficking.

The erstwhile unlikely coupling of human rights and corporations is now a typical feature of corporate/community relations. High-profile corporate infringements of human rights, the rise and rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and on-going efforts to regulate corporate behaviour through legal regimes, at both domestic and international levels, have spawned a mountain of academic literature and commentary. This volume assembles the leading essays from this body of work. Together they frame the relationship between human rights and corporations by charting its history and salient features; tackle the conceptual perspectives of the relationship and detail the practice, problems and potential of the relationship.

International law has evolved to protect human rights. But what are human rights? Does the term have the same meaning in a world being transformed by climate change and globalized trade? Are existing laws sufficient to ensure humanity’s survival? Drawing on case law and practice and examples from philosophy, law, and ecology, Laura Westra argues that the current system is not adequate: international law privileges individual over collective rights, permitting multinational corporations to overlook the collectivity and the environment in their quest for wealth and power. Unless policy makers redefine human rights and reformulate environmental law and policies to protect the preconditions for life itself -- water, food, clean air, and biodiversity -- humankind faces the complete loss of the ecological commons, the preservation of which is one of our most basic human rights. A new kind of cosmopolitanism, one centred on the United Nations, offers the best hope for preserving our common heritage and the survival of future generations.

The essays selected and reproduced in this volume explore how international refugee law is dynamic and constantly evolving. From an instrument designed to protect mostly those civilians fleeing the worse excesses of World War II, the 1951 Refugee Convention has developed into a set of principles, customary rules, and values that are now firmly embedded in the human rights framework, and are applicable to a far broader range of refugees. In addition, international refugee law has been affected by international humanitarian law and international criminal law (and vice versa). Thus, there is a reinforcing dynamic in the development of these complementary areas of law. At the same time, in recent decades states have shown a renewed interest in managing migration, thereby raising issues of how to reconcile such interests with refugee protection principles. In addition, the emergence of concepts of participation and responsibility to protect promise to have an impact on international refugee law.

Forced migration is both as ancient as human life on earth and a relatively new subject of interest for human rights scholars. This volume continues the discussion from Migrants and Rights to focus attention on refugees, victims of trafficking and others who cross borders seeking protection from anthropogenic or natural disasters. The opening essays provide historical and conceptual overviews of rights to freedom of movement and asylum; and links between human rights and refugee law. Articles on the principle of non-refoulement in international law explore the occasional disjuncture between the individual’s right to protection and the State’s rights to protect its national interests. The refugee’s rights to due process and the substance of entitlements at law are explored in essays that range across administrative processes; social and cultural rights, including family reunion; detention; and the right of return. There follow four essays that address sexual orientation and refugee rights; refugees and disability rights; human rights and persons displaced by climate change disasters; and the rights of victims of human trafficking. The volume concludes with work reflecting on the rights discourse outside of traditional ’Western’ theatres. These cover Africa (Kenya), India, South America (Brazil) and the Asia-Pacific (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea).