"[Everyone has] the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications." Article 15(1)(b), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1) We all have a human right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress (the Right to Science [RtS]).* The right has its origins in Article 27 of the United Nation's (UN's) 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted in the wake of World War II (2). † In 1966, the UN turned these commitments into binding obligations under international law. The implication is that, just as governments are expected to respect the rights to, say, freedom of speech and due process, so they must also adopt measures to respect and ensure the RtS (Fig. 1). The existence of this right is important for researchers and society. It adds a legal and moral dimension to a range of fundamental issues, including scientific freedom, funding, and policy, as well as access to data, materials, and knowledge. Yet, despite its potential for furthering science and human rights causes, the RtS has not received the attention it deserves. As the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) notes, "governments have largely ignored their Article 15 obligations and neither the human rights nor the scientific communities have brought their skills and influential voices to bear on the promotion and application of this right in practice" (3). We argue that the scientific community should be aware of this right-and make others aware, as well. The historical neglect of the RtS has, in part, been because of the difficulty in interpreting its implications, both normative and practical. We try to unpack these complexities here in hopes of not only explicating the RtS but also demonstrating why the scientific community should act to enrich it.
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Consultation research to date has largely concentrated on how consultation practices generally serve only the purpose of procedural compliance. This article identifies and explores the gap in existing research on the impact of law on consultation practices and purposes. To explore current practices and the potential contribution of law to the nature of consultation practices, the article focuses on the NSW duty to consult Aboriginal people before permitting harm to Aboriginal cultural heritage. Conventional regulatory approaches to consultation assume that Aboriginal interests are accommodated by the same consultation strategies applied to other stakeholders in rural law and policy. This article uses an administrative law doctrinal research approach to identify the specific issues and requirements for Aboriginal consultation relating to cultural heritage. Consideration is given to the effectiveness of the case study consultation requirements, the duty design, and the recent Land and Environment Court judgment of Ashton Coal Operations Pty Limited v Director-General, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water. 1 The article argues that statutory consultation requirements and purposes can, and should, be taken more seriously. The law reform discussion highlighted in the paper considers how identified consultation requirements can be incorporated into Australian Cultural Heritage legislation, and the possible impact of such incorporation on the purpose of the consultation. More broadly, the law reform discussion indicates that when consultation requirements are tailored to suit the purpose of the consultation and the consultation parties, the law can play a positive role in consultation, engagement and capacity building.
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