Poverty in Jamaica : A Law and Policy Perspective

This book examines the genesis of poverty in Jamaica and how policies and laws related to social and economic rights can help with the promotion and protection of human rights as part of a broader worldview of human dignity. It explores the scope of the country’s obligations and capabilities in line with its municipal and international obligations. It sets out through the policy lenses of the New Haven School of Jurisprudence to understand how Jamaica can fulfil these obligations in a meaningful way to impact the daily lives of its people.

Through a historical survey to the present-day Jamaica, the exploration uses the theoretical frame of the New Haven School of Jurisprudence which underscores human dignity as being paramount to the attainment of human progress and development. The trajectory of the modern human rights movement and constitutional apparatus of nation states help to reinforce and entrench the ways, standards and norms relating to social and economic rights are observed. This, too, is a consideration for this small island state in the Northern Caribbean. However, the jurisprudential question is how the interpretation of laws, and the implementation of policies can be synchronized as conditioning factors of a global consensus on human dignity especially for the most vulnerable. Socio economic rights underscore a public morality though their potential enforcement is often criticized as too vague and imprecise for lasting or meaningful effect. The New Haven School of Jurisprudence with its emphasis on human dignity in the world community points to a new approach to the egregious human rights violations caused by poverty and the part played by these second-generation rights.

The book combines academic rigor with substantial hands-on legal experience, and will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, and policymakers focused on human rights in the region.