Social rights as commitments

Abstract

This paper addresses the adequacy of the conception of social rights as constitutive commitments – advanced by Cass Sunstein with reference to the Social Bill of Rights – to constitutional systems, such as the Portuguese, in which those rights are consecrated by the constitutional text. It is defended that such conception captures more accurately the lacking legal force of social rights, as opposed to freedoms, reinforcing their political force, which ultimately is their only possible real force. It is also defended that the same conception strengthens the association between democracy and social rights.