ABSTRACT
This chapter explains labour rights as the common reference point for comparing the realisation of socio-economic rights in China and India. The grassroots-led movement has involved a number of rights, it is largely in the labour and environment law fields that China is developing its most interesting and, debatable variation of a public interest litigation system (PIL). Rights interest litigation (RIL) illustrates as well as questions the justiciability of socio-economic rights in an authoritarian regime and in turn interrogates the true intent behind China's legal reforms and the real interest of the Chinese leadership in building a rule of law society. The reviews of India and China's implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) tend to relativise these differences by highlighting major commonalities between India and China in the realisation of socio-economic rights.
