DCL Research Series: End-points and the Role of Courts in Structural Change

In a number of jurisdictions in the global south, courts now share some responsibility for ensuring that all persons have access to life-sustaining goods such as food, water, healthcare, and housing. This is notoriously contested judicial work, since it can require courts to become involved in the complex effort and detail of long-term, systemic reform of social policy.

In this session of the DCL Research Series, Edward Bechard-Torres, doctoral candidate at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, asks what objectives or ‘end-points’ courts are hoping to realize when they prod state actors to reform social programs. Understanding these end-points is important. Each one imagines a different relationship between the underlying socio-economic rights in play and the remedies which emerge from the judicial process. Each end-point also implicitly relies on different accounts of how judicial power can be both disciplined and legitimated, and how courts should relate to the political branches.

Amy Preston-Samson, a doctoral candidate at the same Faculty of Law, will be the main discussant.

The DCL Research Series takes place several times during the academic year. It's a platform for DCL and other scholars to share their research and receive feedback. All are welcome to attend! For more info, contact Ivan Ozai (ivan.ozai [at] mail.mcgill.ca).