New Book Chapter: The Inadequacy of Judicial Enforcement of Constitutional Rights Provisions to Rectify Economic Inequality, and the Inevitability of the Attempt

New Book Chapter: Mark Tushnet, The Inadequacy of Judicial Enforcement of Constitutional Rights Provisions to Rectify Economic Inequality, and the Inevitability of the Attempt, in Judicial Review: Process, Powers and Problems (Cambridge University Press 2020, eds. Salman Khurshid et al.). Overview below:

This Chapter, a contribution to Judicial Review: Process, Powers and Problems (Cambridge University Press 2020, eds. Salman Khurshid et al.), a festschrift for Professor Upendra Baxi, argues that contemporary constitutional courts widely and properly attempt to enforce social welfare rights in pursuit of reducing economic deprivation and promoting equality, and that they are bound to fall short. They will fall short for many reasons, some going to institutional capacity but others going to the location of domestic constitutional regimes within an international largely capitalist economic order, in which social welfare rights bump up against domestic and international constraints created by the need for investment to promote economic growth. The Chapter discusses larger ideological formations within which social welfare rights are located, and the doctrinal vehicles available for the implementation of social welfare rights.