The Power to Judge, the Power to Act: the Argentine Supreme Court as a Policymaker

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Campora

AbstractEven though the role of courts to enforce economic, social and cultural rights through structural remedies is well established, the implementation stage of rulings following successful litigation seems to be an area of research still in the making. In the Global South, certain constitutional courts have taken on such litigation as a way to advance economic and social rights. The Judiciary Power thus became a key actor in the framing and execution of public policies. This paper examines how the Argentine Supreme Court has intervened after 2001 in public policies regarding the enforcement of social security, environmental and human rights.


Percurso ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (29) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
Sirlene Elias RIBEIRO

RESUMOO presente artigo cuida de uma análise da atuação dos poderes Legislativo Executivo e Judiciário na realização e implementação dos direitos fundamentais previstos na Constituição Federal do Brasil. O Enfoque dado ao trabalho é a análise de considerações e definições doutrinárias acerca do tema proposto, bem como de julgados do Supremo Tribunal Federal, com o objetivo de uma conclusão acerca do crescimento do ativismo judicial e da judicialização das políticas públicas voltadas aos direitos humanos, passando por uma análise da elaboração de legislação simbolicamente e de uma atuação simbólica do Tribunal nas questões de direitos fundamentais. PALAVRAS-CHAVES: Ativismo; Judicialização; Divisão de Poderes; Legislação Simbólica. ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the performance of the Executive and Judiciary Legislative powers in the realization and implementation of fundamental rights foreseen in the Federal Constitution of Brazil. The focus of the work is the analysis of doctrinal considerations and definitions about the proposed theme, as well as of the Brasilian Federal Supreme Court, with the objective of a conclusion about the growth of judicial activism and the judicialization of public policies focused on human rights, through the analysis of the symbolic drafting of legislation and a symbolic role of the Court in matters of fundamental rights. KEYWORDS: Activism; Judicialization; Division of powers; Symbolic Legislation.



2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-107
Author(s):  
Shahriyar Aliyev

The paper highlighted the role of national mechanisms for the protection of social rights. For this purpose its judicial and administrative remedies have been analyzed. The significance of the constitutional protection of the justice system, her legislative experience in the field of social security, legal and regulatory framework, features, procedural and substantive issues considered on the basis of scientific and theoretical considerations. Along with this, the paper considers a system of judicial protection of social rights, it’s civil, administrative and judicial properties, and shows the primary form of protection issues. Through administrative remedies and the Institute of Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman), the paper examined the current legal framework for the protection of social rights, and analyzed their activity in this field. As a result, the author has put forward a number of recomendations.



2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-318
Author(s):  
Roman Girma Teshome

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.



2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoram Rabin ◽  
Yuval Shany

AbstractThis article addresses the constitutional discourse surrounding the status of economic and social rights in Israel. It examines the principal interpretive strategies adopted by the Supreme Court with regard to the 1992 basic laws (in particular, with respect to the right to human dignity) and criticizes the Court's reluctance to apply analogous strategies to incorporate economic and social rights into Israeli constitutional law. Potential explanations for this biased approach are also critically discussed. The ensuing outcome is a constitutional imbalance in Israeli law, which perpetuates the unjustified view that economic and social rights are inherently inferior to their civil and political counterparts, and puts in question Israel's compliance with its obligations under the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. At the same time, encouraging recent Supreme Court decisions, particularly the YATED and Marciano judgments, indicate growing acceptance on the part of the Court of the role of economic and social rights in Israeli constitutional law, and raise hopes for a belated judicial change of heart concerning the need to protect at least a ‘hard core’ of economic and social rights. Still, the article posits that the possibilities of promoting the constitutional status of economic and social rights through case-to-case litigation are limited and calls for the renewal of the legislation procedures of draft Basic Law: Social Rights in the Knesset.



2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 127-144
Author(s):  
Paul A. Chambers

The Colombian government’s noncompliance with the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement’s Labor Action Plan calls into question not only the government’s intentions but also the efficacy of human rights activism and discourse for social resistance to neoliberalism. Colombia has managed to adjust the narrative on human rights and improve its international image, paving the way for U.S. ratification of the free-trade agreement despite the fact that the human rights situation continues to be very serious. Its success in this is due to the way in which the debate on the agreement and human rights was framed—with a very narrow focus on trade unionists’ rights and a discourse that did not link civil and political rights to economic and social rights—and to the ideological affinity between neoliberalism and the dominant liberal discourse on human rights. El incumplimiento del Plan de Acción Laboral por parte del gobierno colombiano, en el marco del TLC con Estados Unidos, pone en tela de juicio no solo las intenciones del gobierno, sino la utilidad y eficacia del activismo y discurso de los derechos humanos para la resistencia social al neoliberalismo. El Estado colombiano ha logrado ajustar la narrativa sobre los derechos humanos y mejorar su imagen internacional, lo que le permitió ser “premiado” con la ratificación del TLC a pesar de que la situación de derechos humanos siguiera siendo grave. Esto se debe a la forma en que se enmarcó el debate sobre el TLC y los derechos humanos—con un enfoque demasiado restringido y un discurso que no integró los derechos civiles y políticos con los derechos económicos y sociales—y a la afinidad ideológica entre el neoliberalismo y el discurso dominante de los derechos humanos.



2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Saranti

Economic, social and cultural rights have borne the brunt of the recent economic crisis and the austerity measures adopted to counter it. Due to their gradual implementation and the need of positive measures to implement them, they were the first to be attacked. After discussing the possible ways of applying economic, social and cultural rights in the first part of the essay, I will then examine their application during economic crises with a special reference to Greece focusing mainly on two fields, labour rights and social security rights, and the case-law produced by international human rights bodies in that respect.



2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Luis Sombra

AbstractThis Article engages in an empirical analysis of the counter-majoritarian role of the Brazilian Supreme Court, the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), in terms of its sharp contrast with the aim of attracting wider participation from civil society in public hearings. Public hearings are an important judicial tool that have recently been introduced and that may influence foreign constitutional courts. A public hearing is a procedure in which the STF can hear experts, scientists, professors, civil servants, and even ordinary citizens when a Justice Rapporteur seeks to elucidate a specific technical aspect of a case, a controversial social issue, or an issue in a field that is generally unfamiliar to the presiding judge or judges. This research aims to address the influence of these public hearings on the deliberation process of the STF based on the democratic theory of representation. First, Section B outlines the main premises of the debate, elucidated the purposes and findings of public hearings. Next, Section C presents a theoretical approach addressing deliberation and representation to explain how information obtained in public hearings might improve the STF's adjudicative process. Section D outlines the chosen criteria and methods for the empirical research; this will demonstrate that public hearings in the STF are not working as envisioned. Lastly, to offer qualitative insight, Section E carefully examines two of the eighteen public hearings analyzed. The Article concludes that the STF has much work to do in terms of rethinking and improving the functionality of public hearings.



2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 667-683
Author(s):  
Mirza Čaušević

When reading the article’s title, it is important to emphasize the role and importance of the Institution of the Ombudsman for Human Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most important national institution for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Consequently, according to the logic of thinking, it can be clearly concluded that the most important segment of action, above mentioned national institution, is to prevent or eliminate all forms of indirect and direct discrimination. Accordingly, the author decided, in addition to introductory and concluding considerations, to divide the article into four (4) parts. The first part of the article entitled “Theoretical Determination of Discrimination” provides general information on the concept, different forms and types of discrimination in accordance with the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unlike the first, in the second part of the article “The Role of the Ombudsman in the Probation of Discrimination Proceedings”, the Ombudsman aims to present the legal position of the ombudsman in court proceedings, with the mandatory indication of the conditions for initiating the proceedings on his own behalf, representing the individual and intervening in the ongoing proceedings. Through practical examples, the author seeks to emphasize the importance, role and importance of the ombudsman in court proceedings. Subsequently, in the third part of the “Role of Courts in the Probation of Discrimination Proceedings”, the author concentrates that, by using the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, he presents court judgments that discriminate the education system of the Central Bosnia and Herzegovina Canton (non) discriminatory on the basis of the existing segregation in so called. “Two schools under one roof”. Thus, this section primarily analyzes the rejection of the aforementioned claims. Finally, in the fourth (working) section entitled “The Probation of Discrimination Proceeding before the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, the author presents positive and negative examples in the work of the Supreme Court of FBiH, and above all clarifies the process of proving discrimination before this court instance. The aim of this paper is to investigate the legal background of the Institution of the Ombudsman for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as judicial instances from the aspect of domestic (national) law, while, on the other hand, special attention is devoted to the actions of the FBiH Supreme Court in cases of discrimination.



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