ABSTRACT
Should courts enforce social rights?! This is one ofthe major questions facing legal theory and theories of democracy today. It is a difficult question because there are strong arguments on either side. For some, if social rights are not judicially enforced, they are not proper rights. For others, the enforcement of social rights leads inevitably to antidemocratic govemment at the hands of judges.2 At a theoretical level, this debate appears to be tied, as each side presents strong arguments in support of its case. Nevertheless, in the last two decades, judges in several countries have been quite active in enforcing social rights. For this reason it may be useful to look at the problem of the judicial enforcement of social rights in a new way, that is, by putting on hold, at least for the moment, the more abstract theoretical and normative debates, and proceeding to analyse concrete examples of the judicial enforcement of social rights in different countries. Such comparative studies may provide new perspectives on the question. They mayaiso tell us whether the promise of judicial social rights enforcement has been fulfilled, or whether the fears of those opposed to the judicialisation of social rights were indeed justified.
