Cardozo Law Review
Abstract
While not everybody will agree that social rights are good in general, the ranks of the "not-everybody" will fill when one wants to decide who needs which particular social rights. Even those who claim to be philosophically and practically supportive of the idea and the benefits of social rights find it difficult to come up with a strong argument for them and usually invoke vague or weak obligations to support the victims of capitalism or, if you will, the market society or the mere necessity to preserve social peace by a minimally redistributive social policy. Social scientists have plausibly claimed the objectives of social rights-public goods and services-as well as the institutions necessary for their distribution, in particular the welfare state, to be in a deep crisis and have further suggested that the welfarist Utopian energies are exhausted. Against this background it seems daring or naive or both to look for a stronger defense of social rights. Nevertheless, this is what I undertake by trying to answer the question why we the people should care about other people, and why their private misery should be a matter of public concern.
Keywords
Jurisprudence, South Africa, Citizenship, Constitutional Courts, Constitutional Law, Courts
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Courts | Jurisprudence | Law
Recommended Citation
Günter Frankenberg,
Why Care? The Trouble With Social Rights,
17
Cardozo L. Rev.
1365
(1996).
Available at:
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/clr/vol17/iss4/23
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Courts Commons, Jurisprudence Commons