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43 Colum. J.L. & Soc. Probs. 151 (2009-2010)
From Equal Protection to the Right to Health: Social and Economic Rights, Public Law Litigation, and How an Old Framework Informs a New Generation of Advocacy

handle is hein.journals/collsp43 and id is 155 raw text is: From Equal Protection to the Right to Health: Social and Economic Rights, Public Law Litigation, and How an Old Framework Informs a New Generation of Advocacy EMMA C. NEFF* Since the 1990s, rights to health, food, and shelter have been litigated in South Africa, India, and elsewhere. Human rights scholars and American legal commentators frequently treat social and economic rights litigation as if it were a distinct form of litigation. Academic debate then focuses on whether courts should confront social and economic rights litigation, eva- luating how it might succeed where other litigation strategies have failed. This Note argues that social and economic rights cases are a subset of pub- lic law litigation, subject to the exactly the same limitations as public law claims. So categorized, scholars can use measures of success developed in public law theory to analyze social and economic rights litigation. Such measures are critical as the debate among human rights theorists moves from whether social and economic rights are judicially enforceable gener- ally to how best to enforce them. I. INTRODUCTION On May 1, 2007, the City of Yonkers and minority inhabitants who challenged the city's education and housing policies reached * J.D. expected 2010, Columbia Law School; M.D. expected 2011, Duke University School of Medicine; B.A. 2005, University of California, Berkeley. Deepest gratitude to Sarah Cleveland. Thanks to Robert Ferguson, Gillian Metzger, Peter Rosenblum, and Jonathan Gant for comments on earlier drafts and for their personal and professional support, and to the staff of the Legal Resources Centre in Grahamstown, South Africa. Thanks also to my father, Ti Neff.