Towards fiscal justice: Adopting a socio-legal approach to explore the potential of and for human rights budgeting in Scotland

Flegg, Aidan (2025) Towards fiscal justice: Adopting a socio-legal approach to explore the potential of and for human rights budgeting in Scotland. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The Scottish Government has committed to addressing the ongoing accountability gap for human rights in Scotland by introducing new legislation to domestically enshrine a range of international human rights currently unrecognised and unprotected in national law. This includes economic, social, and cultural rights, which have historically been misconceived as merely programmatic or aspirational. This legislative move represents a significant advancement for Scotland, reaffirming its commitment to the rights articulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the true impact of this legislative change on the lives of people in Scotland will hinge not only on their legal entrenchment but also on the resources made available for their implementation. The realisation of economic, social, and cultural human rights has long been recognised as contingent upon the resources available to the state. Consequently, a state's public budget emerges as a crucial instrument in effectuating these rights. In recent years, the relationship between human rights and public budgets has garnered renewed attention from the international human rights community. Over the past decade, new contributions have emerged in literature and practice, emphasising the importance of human rights budgeting and budget analysis. This thesis leverages these developments to advocate for using human rights budgeting as a vital tool for assessing the progressive realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights and for shaping budgetary practices and processes in Scotland. The thesis adopts a socio-legal approach to explore the challenges to and potential for economic, social and cultural rights to begin shaping budgetary processes in Scotland. The thesis provides a deep dive into the potential of the minimum core doctrine to set national priorities and incorporates insights from practitioners in fiscal practices and human rights organisations. By integrating new empirical perspectives into the existing discourse on human rights budgeting, this thesis proposes a more pragmatic and actionable framework for Scotland. It argues for clearer, minimum core priorities to be set for fiscal decision-makers, longer-term planning through multi-year budgets, a focus upon rights outcomes over policy inputs and for a more progressive approach to resource mobilisation. Finally, the thesis concludes with thirty recommendations which aim to guide decision-making processes toward the development of human rights-compatible budgets, thereby facilitating the effective realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights within the Scottish context.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN1187 Scotland; K Law > KD England and Wales > KDC Scotland
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Funder's Name: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Edson Ferrie, Professor Jo, Boyle, Professor Katie and Hosie, Dr. Alison
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-84999
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 08 Apr 2025 08:27
• Last Modified: 08 Apr 2025 08:30
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84999
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84999