Enforcing human rights incrementally : review of Jeff King Judging Social Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

In Australia, discussion of Bills of Rights has tended to focus on the human rights statutes adopted in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, and the broader question of whether Australia should adopt a national Bill of Rights. However, it is well-known that Australia is unusual amongst liberal democracies in lacking a Bill of Rights. In other democracies, the principle of judicial protection of constitutional rights is now widely accepted. And in many of these jurisdictions, debate has moved onto a further question, which is whether constitutional rights protection should be extended beyond civil and political rights to social rights, or rights to housing, healthcare, food, water, social security and education. A related question is the role of the courts in giving effect to these obligations. In South Africa, for example, the post-apartheid Constitution protects social rights and the Constitutional Court has produced an influential body of social rights jurisprudence.