Specifying and Securing a Social Minimum in the Battle Against Poverty: (Human Rights Law in Perspective)

This book addresses a topic that is currently high on the agenda in many fora: how to specify and secure a social minimum. The term ‘social minimum’ has different meanings, depending on the context. These contexts are examined in this book from different perspectives, including law, sociology, philosophy, politics and economics.

In the first part, the social minimum is discussed from a conceptual and theoretical point of view.

The second part shows the various ways in which the social minimum can be specified and measured. There is a need for new indicators that take into account, for instance, aspects of adequate social participation. As this part shows, the choice of indicators is closely intertwined with political choices.

The third part approaches the social minimum from the perspective of legal obligations, addressing the nature of different obligations imposed on individuals and states.

The fourth part deals with the question of social minimum in the context of courts, adjudication and justiciability. The role of international treaties and national constitutions – the interpretation of the rights they enshrine and the way these are dealt with by expert committees and courts – is discussed with a view to understanding how the guarantee of a social minimum can be promoted within individual countries.

Besides being of interest for academics in fields ranging from legal theory and human rights to the social sciences, the book also serves as an important source for students as well as practitioners interested in the social minimum, and anyone who wants to gain an insight into the current debates on this extremely important issue.

1. Introduction
Ingrid Leijten, Toomas Kotkas and Frans Pennings
PART 1
CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS
2. What is the Relationship between the Minimum Thresholds and Distributive Justice?
David Bilchitz
3. An Essential Dimension of the Social Minimum
Malcolm Torry
4. A Social Minimum for Whom? Making a Case for a Normative Pattern of Pragmatic Decency
Sara Stendahl and Otto Swedrup

PART 2
SPECIFYING A SOCIAL MINIMUM
5. The Social Minimum in the Context of Inequality
Michael Adler
6. Is there Common Ground for Defining a Decent Social Minimum in Europe?
Tim Goedemé, Tess Penne, Otto Swedrup, Karel Van den Bosch and Bérénice Storms
7. Poverty Measurement and Poverty Alleviation between Norm-setting and Empirical Inquiries
Eberhard Eichenhofer

PART 3
SECURING A SOCIAL MINIMUM: OBLIGATIONS FOR STATES AND INDIVIDUALS
8. Territorial and Extraterritorial Obligations to Ensure a Decent Social Minimum
Elena Pribytkova
9. Ending Poverty: Human Rights and Responsibilities
David Piachaud
10. The Legal Status of Recipients of Public Assistance
Frans Pennings

PART 4
SECURING A SOCIAL MINIMUM: THE ROLE OF COURTS AND SUPERVISORY BODIES
11. Giving Legal Substance to the Social Minimum
Colm O’Cinneide
12. Legal Strategies and the Question of the Social Minimum: A Systems-Theoretical Approach
Toomas Kotkas
13. Social Minima at the UN Treaty Bodies: Minimal Consistency?
Ben TC Warwick
14. Potential and Pitfalls of Indivisible Judicial Protection of a Social Minimum: From Inflation to Procedural Protection?
Ingrid Leijten
15. Vulnerability as a Path to a ‘Social Minimum’? An Analysis of ECtHR Jurisprudence
Dimitrios Kagiaros
16. Constitutionalising a Social Minimum as a Minimum Core
Katie Boyle

Toomas Kotkas is Professor of Jurisprudence and Social Law at the University of Eastern Finland.
Ingrid Leijten is Assistant Professor at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University.
Frans Pennings is Professor of Labour and Social Security Law at Utrecht University.