The ESRG has been set up to provide post-graduate researchers (PGRs) an informal space to share ideas, readings, and research, as well as learn from one another and advance their skills. With a keen focus on economic and social rights, the Group is designed to provide those working within this field an opportunity to broaden their network and engage with other scholars in the field. The coordinators of the group are currently also active members of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Research Group on Social Rights.
In addition to pre-existing structural pressures, PGRs across universities have faced a loss of academic community during the pandemic. We felt that there was a need to further grab the opportunities presented by the pandemic and our changing work patterns to open up access to intellectual communities across academic institutions. We are an open group, interested in furthering the field of economic and social rights and democracy.
Should you wish to join us for engaging and rich discussions on economic and social rights, please email esr.readinggroup@gmail.com with 100 words explaining your interest in the reading group and how you think your participation will benefit you and the reading group.
Structure of sessions
The ESRG holds monthly sessions led by a discussant who presents key ideas from a reading or a set of readings, followed by an informal discussion. Once you have attended one of the sessions, you may also present a paper, chapter, or your own work to the group.
Co-founders and Co-ordinators of the network
Aidan Flegg (University of Glasgow), PhD candidate on minimum core obligations for economic and social rights and human rights budgeting.
Gaurav Mukherjee (Central European University), doctoral candidate on complex remedies in social rights litigation aimed at transformative constitutionalism in the so-called Global South.
Lisa Montel (University of Bristol and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), PhD candidate on the right to health and breast cancer & Research Associate in law and the creation of healthy urban environments.
Luciano Bottini Filho - PhD candidate and Teacher in Law, researching economic and social rights, resource allocation and global health governance (University of Bristol).
Tentative schedule, Summer-Fall 2021
June 16: Luciano Bottini Filho, to discuss Octavio Ferraz, 'Health as a Human Right - The Politics and Judicialisation of Health in Brazil'
September 2021: Gaurav Mukherjee to discuss Malcolm Langford, ‘Socio-Economic Rights: Between Essentialism and Egalitarianism', in Reidar Maliks Johan Schaffer (eds.) Moral and Political Conceptions of Human Rights implications for Theory and Practice (2017)
October 2021: Aidan Flegg to discuss Paul O’Connell, (2011) ‘The Death of Socio-Economic Rights’ 74(4) Modern Law Review 532
November 2021: Lisa Montel, Text TBD
