Socio-economic rights play an important role in many societies. Demands for jobs, food, water, housing/shelter, education, health care or – more generally – dignified living conditions are as important as classical liberal (‘first generation’) rights to equality, free speech, assembly, political participation or religion in countries like South Africa or India and continue to influence the human rights debate across large parts of South America. The Arab Spring is the most recent battleground over constitutionally entrenched socio-economic demands and greatly expanded the scope of such entitlements in systems like Iraq or Egypt. Other societies, including the United States and many countries in Europe, provide assistance for citizens in need but take a much more cautious stance on the constitutional protection of the socio-economic sphere.
This course identifies different approaches to the protection of socio-economic entitlements. Drawing on the origins of social welfare states, including the German and French models, students will be alerted to the tensions that exist between the desire to provide a constitutional basis for the most fundamental needs of citizens and the limited resources available to most societies when it comes to the creation of job opportunities or the provision of social welfare benefits. Options range from ordinary social welfare legislation without a constitutional safety net, constitutional principles that direct public policy and resources towards the development of socio-economic safeguards, constitutional provisions that guarantee a minimum standard of life, to the constitutional entrenchment of ambitious individual rights to socio-economic benefits.
Students will explore these options on the basis of selected academic writings, socio-economic data from national sources and international organizations, court decisions, and constitutional texts from a variety of systems including Ecuador, South Africa, India, Egypt, Germany and the United States. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role that constitutional law can play in socio-economic development and the distribution of limited resources between competing societal needs. This will include the difficult question of judicial enforcement and the implications of constitutionally entrenched rights for the separation of powers in democratic systems of government. (1 Credit)
Fall 2017
Jörg Fedtke
Comparative & Civil Law
Constitutional Law & Civil Rights
International & Comparative Law