Enshrined education rights: a three state comparison

Abstract

This article will examine enshrined education rights in the UK, Ireland and the USA. This comparative analysis will consider what constitute education rights, what it means for rights to be enshrined and whether and where education rights are enshrined in these three countries. It will also consider whether it may be possible to achieve as much or more through aligning education rights to other rights as is necessitated by the nature of the US Constitution as by upholding a right to education through less formal constitutional means as in the UK or whether the soundest footing is to be in a position to litigate upon explicitly protected constitutional or otherwise enshrined rights to education as in the Irish Constitution. Finally, it will cite research indicating that educational rights necessarily support educational sustainability which is a prerequisite to economic and environmental sustainability and development.