Social rights constitutionalism: an antagonistic endorsement

Christodoulidis, E. (2017) Social rights constitutionalism: an antagonistic endorsement. Journal of Law and Society, 44(1), pp. 123-149. (doi: 10.1111/jols.12017)

Abstract

The article discusses how we might understand solidarity as the organizing concept behind the institutionalization of social rights. I argue that writing solidarity into social rights constitutionalism carries productive tension into constitutional thinking because it disturbs the smooth passage from civil to political and finally to social rights. Marshall's influential argument that social rights are continuous to civil and political rights has become both the grounding assumption in constitutional theory and at the same time the most obvious lie in the constitutional practice of advanced capitalist democracies, clearly belied in EU constitutional practice under austerity. I explore the various attempts to accommodate the continuity of civil, political, and social rights in the face of the contradictory articulation of social democracy and capitalism before undertaking something of a defence of the antinomic significance of social rights constitutionalism, and probing what mileage might be left in ‘exploiting’ the contradiction between capitalist interests and social rights.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Christodoulidis, Professor Emilios
• Authors: Christodoulidis, E.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Journal Name: Journal of Law and Society
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0263-323X
• ISSN (Online): 1467-6478
• Published Online: 03 February 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 Wiley
• First Published: First published in Journal of Law and Society 44(1):123-149
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher