Toward the Economic Brown: Economic Rights in the United States and the Possible Contribution of International Human Rights Law (From World Justice? U.S. Courts and International Human Rights, P 149-160, 1991, Mark Gibney, ed. -- See NCJ-129558)

• NCJ Number: 129565
• Author(s): B Lockwood
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: Westview Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper predicts an affirmation of economic rights by the U.S. Supreme Court analagous to the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954).

Abstract

In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the U.S. Supreme Court held that segregation by race in public schools violates basic constitutional norms of equality. There is evidence that the Court was influenced in its decision by the moral climate set by the United Nations Charter which promotes and protects fundamental human rights and freedoms including the proscription on racial discrimination. Civil rights lawyers regularly cited the United Nations Charter's human rights provisions and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their briefs attacking the manifold practices of American apartheid. The international climate bearing upon economic human rights is also setting the stage for a major breakthrough in a U.S. Supreme Court case that will mandate the legal obligation of State and Federal governments to ensure citizens' economic security. The international document most likely to influence such a court decision is the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It mandates fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value, safe and healthy work conditions, social security, and an adequate standard of living. 29 notes