On the structure and limits of social rights

  • José Manuel Cabra Apalategui Universidad de Málaga
Keywords: Social Rights, Relational Nature of Rights, Structure of Fundamental Rights, Rights Limits

Abstract

Rights in general and, particularly, social rights raise problems of three kinds: philosophical problems regarding their foundation; political problems that affect their recognition; and, last, legal problems at the time of their granting and protection. The question on the constitutional status o social rights points out directly to this last problems.

In this paper I am going to defend two thesis that, though conceptually independent, are closely related to each other. First, that any approach to the legal problems of social rights should keep in mind the structure of rights, that is, the position of that entitled and that obligated by the right. To have a right, regardless of its foundation, means to be in a cetain position within a legal relation. To say “I have a right” without identify who is affected by it as the liable party, is just a political or a moral assertion, but not a right strictly speaking, that is, a legal right. In the second part I will hold that the limits affecting the protection of social rights depend more on the structure of rights than on their constitutional status.

Received: 12 April 2018
Accepted: 25 June 2018
Published online: 03 August 2018

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Author Biography

José Manuel Cabra Apalategui, Universidad de Málaga

Profesor Contratado Doctor

Published
2018-08-03
How to Cite
Cabra Apalategui, José Manuel. 2018. “On the Structure and Limits of Social Rights”. Estudios De Deusto 66 (1), 197-213. https://doi.org/10.18543/ed-66(1)-2018pp197-213.
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