Doctoral Dissertation Research: Creating a Sense of Obligation: Legal Mobilization for Socioeconomic Rights

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Individuals and movements continue to promote social claims through the courts in many countries across the Global South; in ways that challenge our current understanding of the historical role of the judiciary. Around the world, law has become increasingly apparent in social and political life, a change that runs contrary to traditional democratic and legal theory, which envision a limited role for the non-representative judicial branch. Yet, this increase in legal mobilization may, in fact, be deepening democracy by allowing individuals to directly access and make claims upon the state in otherwise unreceptive political environments. To better situate the role of the judiciary in democratic governance, this project investigates legal mobilization around socio-economic rights using a comparative analysis. The research focuses specifically on the issues of housing and healthcare. The research plan involves an analysis of legal documents, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation. It includes approximately 100 interviews with lawyers and legal academics in three major cities. And, the researcher will engage in 3 months of participant observation with three community-based organizations.