Human Rights and the Global Marketplace: Economic, Social and Cultural Dimensions (review)

The human rights community has waited a long time for Human Rights and the Global Marketplace, which explicates—and vindicates—long-neglected economic, social and cultural rights.¹ It provides a thorough and rigorous introduction to their theoretical foundations, a gripping and scholarly account of their historical development, and an illuminating up-to-the-minute guide to their practical applications throughout the world. It is a stunning achievement.

There have, of course, been precursors, and Professors Jeanne M. Woods and Hope Lewis introduce a new generation of human rights lawyers to the groundbreaking work of Louis Henkin,² Abjørn Eide,³ Philip Alston, and Henry Steiner,⁴ as well as rising stars like Antony Anghie,⁵ Karen Engle,⁶ and Makau wa Mutua.⁷ But this book could not have been written until the dust had settled from the end of the Cold War and it would not be so urgently needed had it appeared before what the authors aptly characterize as the turmoil of globalization. Human Rights and the Global Marketplace, in short, is the right book at the right time.⁸

Even as globalization has brought unprecedented prosperity to some, it has brought unprecedented impoverishment to many. The polarization between the richest and the poorest is enormous, and growing. The Preface notes the tension between resistance to rights and the selective neoliberal embrace of some rights and asks whether post-World War II frameworks can in fact respond to twenty-first century realities. Even if economic, social and cultural rights are requisite to the enjoyment of any rights, how can they be assured for the most vulnerable? Human Rights and the Global Marketplace provides a powerful set of analytic tools for justifying, understanding, and realizing these rights. This review describes the scope and organization of the project, noting some of the highlights and the daunting problems that remain.

The book is divided into four free-standing but complementary parts: I. Discursive Themes, II. International Instruments and Their Implementation, III. Power, Politics, and Poverty: Structural Challenges to the Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and IV. Comparative Approaches. As the authors helpfully illustrate in their Preface, this modular structure offers instructors a broad range of options. Once the foundational material of the first part is grasped, the instructor can proceed to any of the other parts, depending on the objectives of the course. Drawing on politics, economics, history, philosophy, and law, each part carefully builds on the reader's knowledge, making an otherwise overwhelming range of material manageable. The result is a volume that serves both as a student-friendly introduction to a complex and unfamiliar area of the law, and as an invaluable resource for scholars with a working knowledge of economic rights in general seeking a more recondite grasp of a particular right or application.

Part I introduces the major themes of the volume and serves as a compelling introduction to human rights, accessible to undergraduates but equally rewarding for more sophisticated graduate and law students. Chapter 1, Global Narratives/Global Realities, begins with a collection of unforgettable stories, vividly illustrating the effects of the denial of economic rights.⁹ As philosopher Richard Rorty observes, such stories drive human rights by enabling the reader to emphasize with those denied them.¹⁰ They teach compassion.

Lewis and Woods are demanding teachers, however, and these stories and data are also intended to stimulate rigorous analysis and challenge feel-good assumptions. The materials in Chapter 1 begin with three provocative questions: (1) Why should any of these issues rise to the level of a human rights concern?; (2) If the problems described are human rights violations, who are the respective rights-holders and duty-holders and what remedies would be appropriate?; and (3) How would you rank the issues in comparison to classic violations of civil and political rights, for example, reports of torture of political prisoners?¹¹ The authors suggest that students revisit these...