For several decades, social rights lacked proper recognition in international law, being qualified as aspirational goals rather than rights, and therefore not enjoying the same level of protection or status as other human rights. This comprehensive Research Handbook provides a comparative overview of the history, nature and current status of social rights at the universal and regional level. Tracing their evolution from rather modest beginnings, to becoming the category of rights responding most accurately to the 21st century's policy objectives of poverty eradication and equitable resource allocation, this Research Handbook assesses the mechanisms used to enhance the implementation and enforcement of social rights. Offering in-depth discussion of current debates in the field of social rights and international law, expert contributors analyse the ability of these rights to act as a tool to fight inequality, as well as to protect and ensure diversity. In so doing, they examine how social rights now play a central role in the shift from a state-centred to a value-based global order. This Research Handbook will be a useful resource for students and academics working on social rights in international human rights law and other fields of public international law. It will also be of value to lawyers, NGOs and state officials concerned with the enforcement and implementation of social rights. Contributors include: V. Bilkova, C. Binder, J.P. Bohoslavsky, D.M. Chirwa, A. Constantinides, J. Cortez da Cunha Cruz, E. De Brabandere, M. de Carvalho Hernandez, E. Dermine, M. Dobri , E. Ferrer Mac-Gregor, M. Goldmann, M. Gongora-Mera, J.A. Hofbauer, D. Ikawa, P. Janig, Z. K dzia, A. Kendrick, T. Kleinlein, E. Lopez-Jacoiste, K. Lukas, S. McInerney-Lankford, A. Mkhonza, M. Morales Antoniazzi, A. Muller, Y. Negishi, M. Nowak, K. Olaniyan, L.C. Pautassi, F. Piovesan, E. Schmid, J. Schoensteiner, F. Seatzu, A. Ubeda de Torre, F. Viljoen, R. Wilde, I.T. Winkler

This ground-breaking collection of essays outlines and explains the unique development of Latin American jurisprudence. It introduces the idea of the Ius Constitutionale Commune en America Latina (ICCAL), an original Latin American path of transformative constitutionalism, to an Anglophone audience for the first time. It charts the key developments that have transformed the region and assesses the success of the constitutional projects that followed a period of authoritarian regimes in Latin America. Coined by scholars who have been documenting, conceptualizing, and comparing the development of Latin American public law for more than a decade, the term ICCAL encompasses themes that cross national borders and legal fields, taking in constitutional law, administrative law, general public international law, regional integration law, human rights, and investment law. Not only does this volume map the legal landscape, it also suggests measures to improve society via due legal process and a rights-based, supranational and regionally rooted constitutionalism. The editors contend that with the strengthening of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, common problems such as the exclusion of wide sectors of the population from having a say in government, as well as corruption, hyper-presidentialism, and the weak normativity of the law can be combatted more effectively in future.