A Needs-based Reconstruction of the Theory of Social Rights

Join the Centre for Law and Social Justice (LSJ) to hear from Marco Goldoni on the argument that social rights should be based on a materialist conception of needs, rather than interest or wellbeing.

Abstract

Those who recognise social rights as proper rights (and not only as policies) tend to identify their ground in the philosophical concept of interest or, in perfectionist terms, wellbeing. However, this understanding can be detrimental for how social rights are not only conceived but also satisfied in contemporary constitutional orders. The argument presented here is based on a two-fold assumption: it is not necessary to reconstruct all rights as grounded in one principle or value; and even if it would be possible to find a common ground among all rights, it would be so thin that it would not tell us much about the content those social rights ought to have. It is indeed quite telling that most interest-based conceptions of social rights tend to adopt a 'minimum core' approach to the determination of the content of those rights. The proposal is to reconstruct certain social rights as based on needs (in alternative to a conception of civil and political rights based alternatively on interest and will). The challenge, however, is to define which conception of needs should be adopted. The article presents an argument in favour of a materialist conception of needs, against two alternatives: one that views needs in terms of mere survival, and the other that views needs as capabilities. A materialist conception of needs not only establishes that more than simple survival is required to deliver social rights, but that it is equally crucial how the goods and services that make up the core of social rights are actually produced.

About the Speaker: 

Marco joined the University of Glasgow Law School in 2012. He holds a degree (LLB) in Law and a degree (BA) in Philosophy, both from the University of Bologna. He earned a first PhD in Legal Philosophy from the University of Pisa and a second PhD in European Law from the University of Antwerp. He has worked as a part-time researcher at CELAPA (Centre for Law and Public Affairs, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) from 2013 to 2017. He has been visiting professor at the Philosophy Department of the University of Uppsala, at FORUM (Uppsala University), Universidad Austral de Chile, University of Brazilia Law Faculty, and IDC Herzlyia. In 2016, he was Simon Roberts fellow at the LSE Law School and in Winter 2020 Schnell Fellow at the Yale Law School. He is co-editor of the series Law & Politics: Continental Perspectives (Routledge), IUS (Quodlibet) and joint editor of the journal Jurisprudence (Taylor & Francis). He is currently School Director of Internationalisation.

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