Could a lesser-known law have stopped austerity?

Vanessa Boon’s research critiques the Coalition & Conservative governments’ non-commencement of the Socio-Economic Duty (SED) which could have prevented, challenged or mitigated against austerity policies and their harsh consequences, including rising child poverty and austerity-related deaths. This draws upon analyses of documents, discourse and interviews with 16 experts. It concludes that the suppression of the SED, alongside austerity cuts with associated worsening hardship and cited in coroner’s reports, is a potentially scandalous injustice and an example of necropolitics. She makes recommendations for the SED’s urgent and meaningful implementation and wider work to improve protection from, and accountability for, policies that cause social harm. This work poses questions about inequalities, class war, socio-economic struggle, the dubious democracy of a law that isn’t activated and whether we need something similar to corporate manslaughter legislation to protect from government ideology that causes social harm and death.

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