The Institutional Guarantee of the Human Right to Science

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ABSTRACT This article identifies and specifies the institutional guarantee of Article 15(1)(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ human right to science and, on that basis, argues for the consolidation of an international law of science. Its contribution may be described as threefold. First, it argues that science should be understood as a public and common good and, more specifically, as a public participatory good in a non-instrumental notion thereof. On that basis, second, the article argues for the collective dimension of the human right to science qua right to a participatory good, specifying what that dimension entails in terms of both individual (collective and personal) scientific rights and group or communal scientific rights. Finally, the article argues for the positive obligations of States to adopt norms of domestic and international law of science and the corresponding domestic and international law statutes of scientific institutions.