| Summary: | The role and function of education cannot be emphasized enough. Education enhances and develops human abilities, consciousness, identity, integrity, potential, and even power. However, no literature or other instrument comprehensively and consistently defines education. This inconsistent approach to the human right to education is more harmful than beneficial. Numerous international instruments, articles, treatises, and national laws relating to the human right to education have been drafted and published since World War II. International law has been used to pierce state sovereignty to protect a state’s citizens against the abusive use of state powers. Accordingly, research in this field to protect the human right to education has become diversified, complicated, and interdisciplinary. Research has focused on outcomes or contexts of education, applying a wide variety of theories including human capital theories, theories of consciousness-raising, and Neo-Weberian and non-Marxist theories. Further, international instruments should be considered holistically, including treaties, international custom, general principles of law, cases, and soft law from various intergovernmental and nongovernmental organization reports and documents. Domestic laws, including state law and local ordinances, should also be considered because the legal right to education is applied and implemented differently among different states. Considering a wide variety of international instruments and literature, this Article will seek to provide a comprehensive and consistent definition of the human right to education. This Article will also provide an annotated bibliography of various sources which can facilitate the research of scholars and practitioners in this field. A list of primary source instruments, including domestic laws of selective countries, is also introduced.
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