I. Introduction; 1 Gilles Giacca, Christophe Golay, and Eibe Riedel: Addressing the Issues and Challenges Confronting ESC Rights; II. Challenges in the Protection of ESC Rights in Times of Crisis; 2 Gilles Giacca: The Protection of Socio-Economic Rights in Armed Conflict: Challenges and Prospects; 3 Mary Dowell-Jones: The Bond Markets and Socio-Economic Rights: Understanding the Challenge of Austerity; 4 Ignazio Saiz and Sally-Anne Way: The Global Economic Crisis and its Implications for Economic and Social Rights; 5 Olivier De Schutter: Companies and ESC Rights: The Need for a New Deal?; III. Interrelationship of ESC Rights with other Legal Regimes; 6 Hans Morten Haugen: Trade and Investment Agreements: What Role for ESC Rights in International Economic Law?; 7 Holger P. Hestermeyer: ESC Rights in the World Trade Organization: Legal Aspects and Reality; 8 Jorge E. Vinuales and Stephanie Chuffard: From the Other Shore: ESC Rights from an International Environmental Law Perspective; 9 Michelle Foster: International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights; 10 Larissa van den Herik: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - International Criminal Law's Blind Spot?; IV. Challenges of Non-discrimination and equality in ESC rights; 11 Ioana Cismas: Revisiting the Intersection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Civil and Political Rights; 12 Sandra Ratjen: Non-Discrimination, Substantive Equality, and the realization of ESC Rights for All; 13 Christine Chinkin: ESC Rights and Gender; V. New Concepts and Tools to Measure the Progressive Realization of ESC Rights; 14 Eibe Riedel: Indicators and Benchmarks - A Golden Metwand for ESC Rights Monitoring?; 15 Aoife Nolan: Budget Analysis and Economic and Social Rights; 16 Simon Walker: Human Rights Impact Assessments: Emerging Practice and Challenges; 17 Tahmina Karimova: Obligation of International Assistance and Cooperation in Development Cooperation: A Legal Map with Areas of Shade and Light; 18 Sigrun Skogly: 'Available Resources' and Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations: the Qualitative Challenge to International Assistance and Cooperation; VI. New Trends in Monitoring ESC Rights at the International and National Level; 19 Nico Schrijver: The International Court of Justice and ESC Rights; 20 Malcolm Langford: New Trends in National Jurisprudence on ESC Rights; 21 Duncan Wilson and Allison Corkery: The Role of National Human Rights Institutions in Monitoring ESC Rights; 22 Frank Haldemann and Rachelle Kouassi: ESC Rights and Transitional Justice

Recent years have seen a remarkable expansion in the scale and importance of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESC rights), culminating in the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in December 2008. The Protocol gives individuals and groups the ability to bring complaints about rights violations before the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Against this background, this book
focuses on the question of how fundamental socio-economic human rights enshrined in international law are defined, interpreted, understood, and implemented. It assesses how effective efforts to realize ESC rights have been and investigates the contemporary challenges obstructing their protection. It
sets out the impact of the global financial crisis and austerity measures, the human rights responsibilities of corporations, and trends in the justiciability of those rights at the national and international level. The interrelationship between ESC rights and other legal regimes such as trade and investment law, environmental law, international criminal law, and international humanitarian law is also thoroughly examined.
After an introduction by the editors the book contains seventeen chapters looking at the main questions which shape the progressive realization of ESC rights and their monitoring mechanisms. The authors of the chapters, both scholars and practitioners, adopt interdisciplinary approaches that move beyond traditional analyses of ESC rights. In doing so, they clarify and illuminate multiple aspects of the law by bringing together the different aspects of ESC rights, restating the challenges they
face, and assessing the progress that has been made in expanding their adoption.

Eibe Riedel is Emeritus Chair of German and Comparative Public Law and European and International Law at the University of Mannheim, Germany, Swiss Human Rights Chair at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva. He studied law and theology at King's College London, and law at the University of Kiel. He obtained his Dr. iuris in 1974 and Dr. iur. habil. in 1983. He has been a Professor of Public Law and International Law at the University of Mainz, then at the University of Marburg, then at Mannheim. Prof. Riedel has recently been appointed a Judge at the Hague Court of Arbitration. He is a Director of the Inland Navigation Law Institute, and the Director of the Institute of Medical Law, Bioethics and Public Health. He was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Mannheim from 1996-2000.
Dr Gilles Giacca is a Legal Adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross. He was formerly a Research Fellow at the Law Faculty and Co-ordinator of the Oxford Martin School Human Rights for Future Generations programme. He holds a MA from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva and a LLM from the University of Essex and holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Geneva and IHEID. Between 2006 and 2012, Gilles Giacca was teaching assistant and then research fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law. Gilles has advised States, international organizations and NGOs on matters of international law. He has also provided training on international law to diplomats and practitioners. His teaching interests include the law of armed conflict and international human rights law.
Christophe Golay is Research Fellow and Joint Coordinator of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. From 2001 to 2008, he was the Legal Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. He teaches courses on ESC rights, the right to food, and human rights and development in different universities. He has published extensively on ESC rights in general and the right to food in particular.