The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

This book undoubtedly makes a profound contribution to the project of developing a coherent, systemic and persuasive jurisprudence on ESCR. At 1,360 pages long, the book at first appears intimidating. However, it is well written and easy to dip in and out of, making it easily accessible both to scholars and students of international human rights for whom it should become a standard resource. * Jackie Dugard, Nordic Journal of Human Rights *
A very useful, up-to-date, and well-researched source of information, providing detailed reasoning from a broad variety of cases and materials... This ICESCR Commentary can be recommended for scholars and practitioners. * Norman Weiß, German Yearbook of International Law *
The publication of this volume marks something of a coming of age for the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.... scholarly contributions are crucial for the development of a coherent, systematic, and persuasive jurisprudence relating to economic, social and cultural rights. This volume performs a formidable service by providing such an insightful synthesis of the most important elements of this emerging jurisprudence. It also helps to expose the relative paucity in the literature of engaged but critical analyses of this jurisprudence, and thus highlights the need for the next generation of scholars to engage in a more robust and challenging way with the materials brought together in this volume. * Philip Alston, New York University *
This book will quickly become an essential companion to anyone interested in this field. It offers a comprehensive and nuanced account of the rights set out in the Covenant, explaining their historical and jurisprudential context and how they have been and might be deployed. It unpacks the concept of 'progressive realisation' of economic, social and cultural rights. The book transcends the rather static debates between supporters and critics of the Covenant by focussing on how its rights have been protected in practice and the authors emphasise the limits of a narrow legal approach in this area. This is a book packed with important information and sophisticated analyses and it will change the way that the Covenant is understood. * Hilary Charlesworth, Australian National University *