of action specific articles in the Covenant, either because the Covenant has been directly incorporated or because its provisions are reflected in national constitutions and Bills of Rights. Within Europe and often overlooked in the United Kingdom, is the sister treaty to the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter. The latter is a treaty of the Council of Europe, and a number of European states, including France and Portugal, allowing petitions to the European Social Charter Committee. The United Kingdom is only party to one section of the treaty and no United Kingdom government of any political persuasion has ever indicated that it wishes to see ratification of the whole treaty. Professor Colm O’Cinneide highlighted some of the jurisprudence under the European Social Charter, including a decision on the inadequacy of French schools regarding school students with autism. Although unlike the European Convention on Human Rights, whose decisions are binding, the Council of Europe’s Social Charter Committee can only recommend, but its recommendations can be submitted as persuasive authority before the relevant courts.
justice protection beginning with Airey v Ireland, in which the European Court of Human Rights recognised one of the grundnorms of international human rights law that civil and political rights are equal and indivisible in value from economic, social and cultural rights. Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights have been delivered on a wide range of matters, and whilst not offering an equal alternative to incorporated socio-economic rights, the incremental protection of socio-economic rights ought not to be undervalued. Critics of socio-economic jurisprudence sometimes confuse polycentricity with complexity. Socio-economic jurisprudence is complex, but no more complex than civil and political rights jurisprudence. The conference provided evidence that if socio-economic rights were incorporated into United Kingdom law the courts would be capable of acting as a constitutional safety net when legislation, policy, revenue incentives and other political and fiscal aspects of the welfare state have failed specific groups in the community.
The European Convention on Human Rights was drafted principally as a treaty focusing on civil and political rights, but nevertheless there have been cases where it has been successfully used to protect social justice rights. Professor Sionaidh Douglas-Scott discussed the English courts’ approaches to the attempted non-application of the European Charter on Fundamental Rights to the justiciability provisions on social rights. Although there has also been a failure of the European Union in protecting vulnerable groups from the bailout conditions, there were possible lines of argument, which could be adopted by the European Court of Justice. Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC and Richard Drabble QC both traced the historical developments of social justice protection in the United Kingdom in relation to access to courts through legal representation, the changes to the welfare state since the Beveridge Report and the significant obstacles to mounting successful challenges without considerable pro bono legal service. The European Convention on Human Rights was drafted principally as a treaty focusing on civil and political rights, but nevertheless there have been cases where it has been successfully used to protect social justice rights. Professor Sandra Fredman traced the development of social
Master Van Bueren is Professor of International Human Rights Law, Queen Mary, London; Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford; a practising barrister and Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers, Geraldine is a Commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission and a drafter of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Her recent books were commissioned by the UN and the Council of Europe Law’s Duty to the Poor (UNESCO) and Child Rights in Europe (Council of Europe). She received the UNICEF and Law Society’s Child Rights Lawyer Award and co-founded INTERIGHTS. Her writings have been cited in courts and legislatures globally.
Justice For All: What can Law and the Courts do in Hard Times
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