The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective / Edition 1

by Charles R. Epp

Overview

It is well known that the scope of individual rights has expanded dramatically in the United States over the last half-century. Less well known is that other countries have experienced "rights revolutions" as well. Charles R. Epp argues that, far from being the fruit of an activist judiciary, the ascendancy of civil rights and liberties has rested on the democratization of access to the courts—the influence of advocacy groups, the establishment of governmental enforcement agencies, the growth of financial and legal resources for ordinary citizens, and the strategic planning of grass roots organizations. In other words, the shift in the rights of individuals is best understood as a "bottom up," rather than a "top down," phenomenon.

The Rights Revolution is the first comprehensive and comparative analysis of the growth of civil rights, examining the high courts of the United States, Britain, Canada, and India within their specific constitutional and cultural contexts. It brilliantly revises our understanding of the relationship between courts and social change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226211626
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	10/15/1998
Edition description:	1
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Charles R. Epp is University Distinguished Professor in the School of Public Affairs & Administration at the University of Kansas. He is the author of The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective; Making Rights Real: Activists, Bureaucrats, and the Creation of the Legalistic State; and is the co-author of Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
1: Introduction
2: The Conditions for the Rights Revolution: Theory
3: The United States: Standard Explanations for the Rights Revolution
4: The Support Structure and the U.S. Rights Revolution
5: India: An Ideal Environment for a Rights Revolution?
6: India's Weak Rights Revolution and Its Handicap
7: Britain: An Inhospitable Environment for a Rights Revolution?
8: Britain's Modest Rights Revolution and Its Sources
9: Canada: A Great Experiment in Constitutional Engineering
10: Canada's Dramatic Rights Revolution and Its Sources
11: Conclusion: Constitutionalism, Judicial Power, and Rights
App: Selected Constitutional or Quasi-Constitutional Rights Provisions for the United States, India, Britain, and Canada
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Gerald Rosenberg

The Rights Revolution is a fascinating and important book. Epp's comparative focus adds immeasurably to the importance of his argument, and he is persuasive, in large part, because he places courts and rights in the social, political and economic, and cultural environments in which they operate. It is an ambitious and well-written study of an important part of modern political life.
— Gerald Rosenberg, author of The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?

Editorial Reviews

Offers a comparative analysis of the growth of civil rights, examining the high courts of the US, Britain, Canada, and India within their specific constitutional and cultural contexts. Argues that, rather than being the fruit of an activist judiciary, the ascendancy of civil rights and liberties has rested on the democratization of access to the courts. An appendix provides rights-provision documents. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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