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Forum Paper Title: The Perspectives of the European Social Citizenship
Commentators: Professor Michel Rosenfeld, Professor Grainne de Burca
Abstract of Forum Paper:
The first part of the paper aims to give an historical and conceptual outline of
the development of social citizenship in European legal culture. Within this
framework, social citizenship, along with the functions of the social state and the
Marshallean understanding of citizenship, is examined comparatively with respect to
American constitutionalism. Despite osmosis between Western legal systems, which
have led some authors speak of a “European–Atlantic constitutional state”, a clear
dividing line between the European and the American, or more generally, the Anglo-
Saxon legal cultures, is still discernible, and can be traced to the very different weight
attached to the social element in them.
The second part explores the parallel evolution of a market driven European
economic constitution and efforts towards introduction of a “social dimension” into
the Community. Most of these efforts have been more rhetorical than substantive.
However, the case law of the ECJ has given to the social dimension potential for a
second, normative life. Within the ECJ’s jurisprudence, the concept of solidarity has
been applied to justify exceptions from the rules of competition, and the use of
European Citizenship in cases of free movement has resulted in widening recognition
of social rights of migrant persons. However, this case law has not altered
dramatically the dominant economic orientation of European Law. There remain few
instances where the predominance of the social element over the economic has
exceptionally been recognized, to give hope for the emergence of a European social
citizenship.
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