The Human Right to Science: History, Development, and Normative Content
Document Type
Book
Keywords
human rights; history of international law; intellectual property; Civil and political rights; climate change; European Union; freedom of expression; precautionary principle
Identifier Data
https://doi.org/10.1093/law/9780197768990.001.0001
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Rights Management
Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
Abstract
The Human Right to Science is about the “human right to benefit from progress in science and its applications,” also known more succinctly as the “right to science.” Although the right to science is one of the oldest internationally recognized human rights, it has suffered too long from neglect. International organizations and States pay little attention to it. There are only a few inadequate indicators to measure progress toward its realization. There is also little or no international or national jurisprudence, as the right as such is not litigated. However, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, both international organizations and scholars developed a new interest in the right to science. This book provides an in-depth historical account of the emergence and development of the right to science (Part II) and maps the right to science in international and domestic (constitutional level only) legal instruments (Part III). In Part IV, the right to science is broken down into twenty-two distinct but interrelated rights, grouped in four clusters: (1) the right to scientific progress and to scientific freedom; (2) the right to responsible scientific progress; (3) the right to participate in scientific progress; and (4) the right to benefit from scientific progress. For each cluster of rights, and for each of the rights contained in each cluster, the book discusses their normative basis and content, limitations, and possible indicators States and international organizations use, or might use, to track progress toward their implementation.
