The European Yearbook of Constitutional Legislation is happy to announce a name for submissions for its eighth quantity (2026) on the theme of Social Rights and Constitutional Justice.
Social rights – such because the rights to housing, healthcare, schooling, and social safety – are gaining elevated prominence in constitutional discourse, significantly within the mild of widening inequalities, international well being emergencies just like the COVID-19 pandemic, and the far-reaching socio-economic results of migration and local weather change. These rights embody the promise of a constitutional order that not solely protects particular person freedoms but in addition ensures the fabric situations important for a dignified life. But their efficient realisation stays deeply contested. Past political resistance and useful resource constraints, social rights should additionally deal with entrenched conceptions of constitutions as devices of limitation somewhat than empowerment – as frameworks that constrain state motion somewhat than mandate proactive social provision. This rigidity raises basic questions concerning the evolving position of constitutional regulation in securing substantive equality and social justice within the twenty first century.
Whereas the judicialisation of social rights claims is gaining momentum in Europe and past, this quantity seeks to discover social rights in a broader and extra built-in sense, situating them inside the framework of constitutional justice. Somewhat than focusing solely on judicial evaluation, the quantity will study constitutional justice as a multi-actor and systemic effort to grasp social rights in ways in which promote equality, inclusion and human dignity. Thus, constitutional justice is a multifaceted course of that encompasses legislative selections, administrative implementation, and institutional accountability. The quantity will think about how constitutions construction the duties of the state and its establishments in securing the fundamental situations mandatory for human dignity, and the way a variety of actors – parliaments, governments, courts, and civil society – collaborate, contest, and contribute to the definition, interpretation, and realisation of social rights. In doing so, the quantity invitations reflection on how constitutional programs can reply to enduring inequalities by means of each authorized mechanisms and democratic engagement.
Submissions could deal with, however are usually not restricted to, the next matters:
The constitutional instruments obtainable to lawmakers and policymakers in constructing social safety programs that align with social rights.
The interplay between legislatures and courts in defining the scope and limits of social rights, with consideration to constitutional dialogue, judicial deference, and institutional roles.
The position of regional courts – such because the European Courtroom of Human Rights, the Courtroom of Justice of the European Union or the Inter-American Courtroom of Human Rights – in shaping the normative content material of social rights.
The tensions between judicial enforcement and democratic legitimacy, particularly in instances of judicial intervention in budgetary or redistributive insurance policies, and the way courts take care of separation of powers issues.
The methods wherein constitutional programs reply to structural social exclusion, together with alongside traces of race, gender, incapacity, or migration standing.
The idea of constitutional justice and its implications for social rights and constitutionalism, together with its relationship to legitimacy, participation, and state accountability.
Classes from international experiences, similar to transformative constitutionalism in South Africa and India or social rights litigation in Latin America.
Though the EYCL focuses totally on constitutional regulation and constitutionalism, it actively encourages interdisciplinary submissions from students inspecting the theme by means of historic, political science, financial, (social-)geographical, or anthropological views. The EYCL is involved in submissions that study the theme close to the European expertise, however contributions on its wider utility to different areas and organisations are additionally explicitly invited, together with these positioned within the World South.
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 1 June 2025, though earlier submissions are inspired.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: Proposals of 350 to 500 phrases needs to be submitted to [email protected]. Please put ‘Proposed paper, quantity 8’ within the topic line of your electronic mail. Proposals ought to clearly define the proposed contribution’s important arguments, methodology, and relevance to the quantity’s theme. Profitable candidates will probably be notified by 1 July 2025. Full papers should be submitted by 1 December 2025. Manuscripts needs to be not than 10,000 phrases, together with footnotes. In making ready their manuscript, authors ought to comply with the EYCL Fashion Information, which will probably be despatched to them when notified about their profitable utility. Selections to publish a submission are primarily based on editorial and double-blind peer evaluation.
