Human Right to Science: History, Development, and Normative Content

Recognized as early as 1948, the right to benefit from progress in science and its applications (known more succinctly as "the right to science") has long confounded international legal scholars and practitioners. While it is key to properly framing the relationship between science, technology, and society, the right to science continues to be poorly understood and very rarely invoked by those who could benefit from it.

The Human Right to Science: History, Development, and Normative Content offers a thorough and systematic analysis of this pivotal human right. After discussing the aims, methodology, and key definitions, the book examines the historical origins of the right to science, from the American Declaration of Human Rights to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. It then turns to mapping the development of the right within the United Nations system (including UNESCO) and its spread to regional regimes. Finally, the book breaks down the normative content of the right to science into twenty-two distinct rights, grouped in four clusters: the right to scientific progress, to responsible scientific progress, to participate in scientific progress, and to benefit from scientific progress. For each, the book describes in detail the legal basis, content, corresponding obligations, and indicators. The book closes by recommending the adoption of a Science Treaty to fully realize the potential that the human rights framework can offer to the regulation of science and technology.

Authored by two leading experts in international law and science policy, The Human Right to Science meticulously explores the right's origins, development, and normative content. In doing so, it uncovers previously unarticulated entitlements and obligations, offering new insights on human rights interconnections.