Jacqueline F Mowbray

Linguistic justice : international law and language policy

Introduction 1. Language in Education: Context and Complexity 2. Language in Culture and the Media: Complexity and Change 3. Language and Work: Systematic Disadvantage 4. Language and the State: The Politics of Language 5. Language and Participation in Public Life: Democracy and Doxa Conclusion

The Right to Food and the International Economic System: An Assessment of the Rights-Based Approach to the Problem of World Hunger

This article considers the effectiveness of rights-based approaches to the problem of world hunger. Given that inadequate food supply may be the result of complex, structural problems outside the control of particular staes and authorities, can advocacy based on the right to food significantly improve world food security? To answer this question, this article considers one particular structural factor which contributes to world hunger, namely the operation of the international economic system. It concludes that, at both a theoretical and a practical level, human rights discourse is ill-suited to achieve the fundamental structural change to this system necessary to improve food security. This represents a significant limitation on the effectiveness of the right to food. As a result, an alternative legal approach is suggested, namely using a legal principle of ‘food sovereignty’ to ensure that the international system as a whole operates to support the food needs of its population.