Human Rights and Positive Obligations to Healthcare

Abstract

This book is aimed at academics whose research relates to the European Convention on Human Rights and those who are interested in the philosophy of law. It is also aimed at judges and lawyers who deal with the ECHR, and with European Court of Human Rights health-related case law in particular. Furthermore, it can be used by students who wish to deepen their knowledge of the philosophical issues relating to human rights and the ECHR. The main objectives of this book are threefold. First, it proposes that Joseph Raz’s notion of the ‘double dimension of human rights’ offers a middle-ground approach to human rights that judges can use to scrutinise the social aspects of those rights. Secondly, it proposes that Joseph Raz’s philosophy of law must be read as a theory on the ‘double dimension of human rights’, rather than as an interest theory on such rights. Thirdly, this book does not just focus on the theory of human rights; it also analyses how human rights are applied and read in practice, focusing on the ECHR and ECtHR case law.