Introduction

Recent developments in social rights litigation signal new trends in contemporary understandings of democratic citizenship. As the frontiers of what constitutes minimum entitlements for the realisation ofbasic human dignity are shifting, so are our perceptions of how best to protect and promote socially inclusive notions of rights-based citizenship. We are witness to the unfolding of an era of human rights which involves pushing forward novel versions of the 'rights revolution', new patterns in legal mobilisation and growing recourse to the courts by different social groups in pursuit of emancipatory forms of social transformation. And courts in some cases are taking up the challenge.