Download This PaperEconomic and Social Rights in National Constitutions
44 Pages Posted: 4 Nov 2013 Last revised: 16 Jul 2015
Abstract
Much has been written about the global convergence on constitutional supremacy, and the corresponding rise of an apparently universal constitutional discourse, primarily visible in the context of rights. In this paper, we examine the global constitutional homogeneity claim with respect to economic and social rights. Based on a new and unique dataset that identifies the status of seventeen distinct economic and social rights in the world's constitutions (195 in total), we make four arguments. First, although economic and social rights have grown increasingly common in national constitutions, not all ESRs are equally widespread. Whereas a right to education is so common as to be practically universal, rights to food or water are still very rare. Second, constitutions accord ESRs different statuses, or strengths. Roughly one third of countries identify all economic and social rights as justiciable, another third identify all ESRs as aspirational, and the last third identify some ESRs as aspirational and some as justiciable. Third, legal tradition — whether a country has a tradition of civil, common, Islamic or customary law — is a strong predictor of whether a constitution will have economic and social rights and whether those rights will be justiciable. Fourth, whereas regional differences partly confound the explanatory power of legal traditions, region and legal tradition retain an independent effect on constitutional entrenchment of ESR. We conclude by suggesting that despite the prevalence of economic and social rights in national constitutions, as of 2013 there is still considerable variance with respect to the formal status, scope and nature of such rights. Because the divergence reflects lasting determinants such as legal tradition and region, it is likely to persist.
Keywords: Economic Rights, Social Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Economic Growth and Judicial Independence: Cross Country Evidence Using a New Set of Indicators
By Lars P. Feld and Stefan Voigt
-
Inflation Culture, Central Bank Independence and Price Stability
By Bernd Hayo
-
By Stefan Voigt
-
Choosing Not to Choose: When Politicians Choose to Delegate Powers
By Stefan Voigt and Eli Salzberger
-
Attitudes Towards Inflation and the Viability of Fixed Exchange Rates: Evidence from the EMS
-
A Public Choice Case for the Administrative State
By David B. Spence and Frank B. Cross
-
Making Judges Independent - Some Proposals Regarding the Judiciary
By Lars P. Feld and Stefan Voigt
-
Economic Analysis and the Design of Constitutional Courts
By Tom Ginsburg