Humanizing (Anti)Corruption: The Socio-Legal Values of a Human Rights-Based Approach to Corruption
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Date
2019
Authors
Castro e Silva, Bruna
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
This article intends to contribute to the current academic and policy debate on the
values of determining whether a particular human rights violation was caused by a
corrupt behavior; and to defend a human rights-based approach to corruption, based
on its added socio-legal values. With this purpose, it analyzes and compares the legal
reasoning and socio-legal dynamics of three human rights court cases involving and
not involving corruption. By applying a directed content analysis combined with a
socio-legal interpretative technique, the study explores and compares the rationality
and the values addressed in both corrupt and non-corrupt cases. The results reveal
that there are interconnected and mutually reinforcing socio-legal values in applying
a human rights lens to combating corruption: (i) it is an improvement towards the
justiciability of economic and social rights; (ii) it is a change of paradigm from the
insufficient criminal approach to a focus on the social harm; and (iii) it is a more
satisfactory approach to the overlapping harmful effects of corruption and inequality.
The combination of these values can be used as a legal empowerment strategy, with a
particular social accountability dimension, in order to strengthen the disadvantaged,
and fight the encroachment caused by corruption on the enjoyment of human rights,
especially economic and social rights.
Description
Keywords
human rights-based approach, corruption, economic and social rights, justiciability, socio-legal values, social harm, inequality, legal empowerment, article
Citation
Castro e Silva, B. Humanizing (Anti)Corruption: The Socio-Legal Values of a Human Rights-Based Approach to Corruption / Bruna de Castro e Silva // Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal. - 2019. - No. 5. - P. 59-81.