How can Rights be Individuated?

This chapter focuses on how courts should individuate social and economic rights. Although all rights can be judicially enforced, judges must have a different approach to each right; there are substantial differences even among social and economic rights themselves. Analysing the recent Dladdla case of the South African Court, the chapter argues that it is not possible to confine human interests regarding housing to bare survival, but other dimensions of the right to housing come into play. In this sense, it seems to take the stance of the ‘interest theory’ of rights, according to which despite their canonical formulations, rights have a dynamic character due to ever-evolving interest and duties that rights are there to protect and impose. This dynamism is even clearer in pluralist societies, where disagreement on those interest and duties flourishes. The chapter then calls the attention on how courts should do their job in regards to the interpretation and enforcement of socio-economic rights; it suggests taking an ‘integrated’ approach, which acknowledges the interconnection of the various rights.