The relational impact of social rights judgments: a trust-based analysis.

There is a growing body of scholarship examining the impact of courts' social rights judgments, especially their distributive impact (ie the extent to which they deliver social rights-related goods and services to the poor and marginalised). Commentators have used this impact to evaluate the effectiveness of courts in realising citizens' social rights. This paper contributes to the scholarship by adding a new 'relational' dimension to our understanding of such impact. It uses the literature on the concept of trust from philosophy, sociology and other disciplines to analyse the impact that social rights judgments have on the relationship between citizens and the political branches of government, and argues that social rights judgments can modify two elements of this relationship that determine the dynamics at play in it: citizens' vulnerability to the political branches with respect to the relevant goods and services; and citizens' uncertainty about the political branches' exercise of control over the goods and services (which can promote the political branches' trustworthiness). By broadening our understanding of these judgments' impact, the paper offers a valuable lens through which to analyse social rights judgments and adds needed nuance to current debates about courts' effectiveness in realising citizens' social rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]