A lock on the justiciability of social rights
In Québec law, the marginalization or exclusion of social rights, such as the right to housing and to an « adequate’ standard of living, can deprive individuals in vulnerable situations of the ability to take legal action in the event of violations, and induce a lack of government accountability. This paper identifies and examines the factors that sustain this status quo in constitutional and quasi-constitutional law. It applies a socio-legal perspective and an empirical research framework to the concept of a legal culture of human or individual rights, and uses this concept to appraise the practices, representations and values of two groups of actors : legal aid lawyers and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The analysis demonstrates that the legal cultures of these two groups differ in terms of knowledge and representations of social rights but share many similarities. Significantly, but in separate ways, they create obstacles to the justiciability of social rights and, in so doing, reveal the supremacy of the so-called established or traditional legal system which treats social justice as an a-judicial issue.