Litigating Socio-Economic Rights in Times of Resource Constraints

Programme

• Presentation of the Brett W. Campbell PhD Thesis Prize in International Studies, with Prof. Stefano Schiavo and Dr Margherita Baldarelli;
• Presentation of her thesis by the award winner, Dr Giulia Ciliberto;
• Discussion with Prof. Luisa Antoniolli;
• Questions and answers.

Abstract

During the last decades, the idea that economic and social rights are judicially enforceable has gained traction thanks to the creation of dedicated treaty regimes and related international supervisory mechanisms, alongside the growing body of national case-law adjudicating these rights. However, vindicating socio-economic rights in judicial settings remains a tricky matter on a practical level, as shown by the case-law on austerity legislation adopted in the context of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Notably, the 2008-2018 turmoil represented a polyhedral case-study to assess whether the national, international, and European Union systems provide adequate remedies for the violation of socio-economic rights caused by austerity policies and whether these systems could have adopted a different adjudicative approach with the view of enhancing the effectiveness of socio-economic rights enshrined in international human rights law.
The PhD thesis provides an overview of the causes and responses to the Eurozone crisis, a primer on socio-economic rights on the international level (including the regime governing State responsibility in case of violation of obligations related to socio-economic rights), and then an analysis of the case-law on austerity policies adopted in five Eurozone States, namely Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal. The PhD thesis covers the socio-economic rights adjudication at the domestic, international and EU level, and strives to offer insights on the significance of these outcomes in cases of future violations of socio-economic rights, including through the enactment of austerity-like policies in the near future.

Speaker

Giulia Ciliberto  - University of Cagliari

Bio

Dr Ciliberto (PhD in Economic Law, University of Naples Federico II, 2021) is a Research Fellow in International Law at the University of Cagliari. In 2021, she was Research Fellow in International Law at the CNR-IRISS (Naples). She is currently a reporter for the Oxford Reports on International Human Rights Law (OUP), and a member of the key staff of the Jean Monnet Module “EULab”. She is also a member of the Territorial Commission for International Protection of Cagliari, where she acts as a UNHCR-appointed Independent Expert. Between 2016 and 2019, she provided free legal assistance to asylum seekers and (un)documented migrants in Italy and Greece.