Economic and Social Rights in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract Despite the growing interest of legal scholarship in economic and social rights, little attention has been paid to their development in Central and Eastern Europe. This chapter analyzes the main features of the process of the constitutionalization of these rights in this region. It begins with the debate on their constitutionalization after the democratic breakthrough of 1989, with a focus on how the legacy of communism has affected this process. Focusing on Czechia, Hungary, Latvia, and Poland, the chapter then analyzes three different constitutional models of judicial enforcement of economic and social rights represented by these states. It is argued that, as a matter of principle, the constitutional courts of Czechia, Hungary, and Poland have largely exercised constraint, despite the opportunities resulting from the extensive catalogs of economic and social rights contained in the constitutions, while a more open path has been taken by the Latvian Constitutional Court. This divergence may be partly explained by the adoption of the concerns expressed about economic and social rights in the process of their constitutionalization, although the underlying politics of the judiciary in each state also accounts for the distinctive trajectories that have been followed.