Measuring Compliance: Social Rights and the Maximum Available Resources Dilemma

This article argues that since fulfillment of social rights is dependent on the availability of resources we must look beyond the field of international human rights, to economics, to provide a stylized way of thinking about measuring compliance. Using conditional rights as a starting point, this article argues that there are certain normative and practical factors that limit social rights, and it is in allowing for these factors that gives rise to the maximum resources dilemma: How can the content of social rights be determined if it is allowed to differ across resource contexts, and how can compliance be measured if the content is not determinate? It argues further that the empirical tools of microeconomics offer a systematic way to deal with the dilemma and outlines a methodological sketch for measuring compliance.