Justiciable socio-economic rights as adaptive law for urban resilience

ABSTRACT This article argues that justiciable socio-economic rights enhance the adaptability and resilience of domestic legal systems, thereby enabling adaptive urban governance in times of crisis. It relates substantive concepts and standards associated with the protection of economic and social rights in international law to urban resilience, focusing on the right to adequate housing under Article 11 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Thereafter it considers the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights’ evaluation of individual complaints pertaining to the right to adequate housing under Article 8(4) of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR, zooming in on the Committee’s employ of ‘reasonableness’ as review standard and on the implications of this for domestic legal systems. Given that the Optional Protocol’s ‘reasonableness’ standard draws on the standard earlier adopted by the South African Constitutional Court, the article then considers the standard’s employ and supplementation with adaptive judicial remedies in South African socio-economic rights jurisprudence.