LAW AND POLICIES FOR SOCIAL RIGHTS PROTECTION IN EUROPE is composed of a 42 hours course (6CFU), developed along five main streams.
The first stream (8 hours) will introduce the students to the definition of social rights in comparative perspective (with specific regard to their “conditioned” nature and their justiciability), and to their particular status within the evolution of the EU integration process. In particular, this part will focus on the tensions between the development of the economic and the social dimensions of the EU project [and between the internal market and social rights]. It will take into consideration the relevant legislative acts dealing with social rights protection, the role played by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the landmark decisions of the Court of Justice (especially in the field of labor-law and health care protection), until the most recent steps, such as the EU Social Pillar launched in 2017. The aim of the first introductory stream will be to highlight the complexity of social rights protection in Europe, also in the light of the still critical relation between the EU legal order and the European Charter and Committee of Social Rights, paving the way to the more detailed analysis conducted in the next streams.
The second stream (10 hours) will deal with the challenges posed by the economic crisis to the European system of social rights protection, both at national and at the EU level. In particular it will address the status of social rights during the Eurozone crisis through the analysis of the most relevant documents of the so-called “crisis law”, in order to assess the impact that the mechanisms deployed to face the crisis had on the status of social rights in Europe. This stream will also analyse the role played by the Court of Justice in adjudicating austerity measures and it will draw a comparison between the CJEU case law and the most relevant decisions of the European Committee on Social Rights and of the European Court of Human Rights. After the legal analysis of the crisis’ implications the module will focus on some case-studies: in particular it will analyse the impact of the crisis on the policies related to health care protection and social benefits.
The third stream (10 hours) will deal with the impact of the migration crisis on social rights protection in Europe. A preliminary step of this part of the module will be devoted to highlihgt the connection between EU citizenship and social rights benefits in the EU. In particular, this stream will discuss the topic of “conditional” social rights benefits. The core of the third part will be however the discussion of social rights protection for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants and most vulnerable groups, debating the tension between human rights protection and and financial resources. This stream will feature a seminar given by NGOs staff working in the field of migration and human rights protection.
The fourth stream (6 hours) will be focused on the crisis of the welfare state in Europe and on the emergence of the “second welfare” paradigm. For at least three decades, European countries have been striving to reform their social systems, tailored on increasingly surpassed economic and socio-demographic structures. The consistency between programmatic ambitions and reform practice is not easy to gauge. Reforms introduced at the national level, largely focused on the big programs of social protection, do not exhaust the set of ongoing transformations. In order to capture the breadth and nature of change, this module moves beyond the perimeter of the public sector, directing attention towards developments in the market and in civil society, and especially towards those new forms of intertwinement, collaboration and synergy that have been emerging between these two spheres (and often between them and the public sector) in welfare provision. For denoting the array of non-public welfare provisions which have been expanding in the last decade, the Italian debate has recently coined a new label: “second welfare”, a notion that is very much connected with the discussion on social innovation and the future of social policy at the EU level. The module focuses on “poorly visible” forms of social innovation and welfare mix initiatives and projects, and describes recent achievements in some selected European countries (Nordic countries, UK, Germany and France, Italy and Eastern European countries). The module aims at highlighting problems, risks, and prospects of such trends as well.
Last but not least the fifth stream (8 hours) will be devoted to future challenges of social rights protection in Europe, focusing on the hotly debate about social rights, growing economic inequality, and the rule of law and democratic crisis. This stream will reflect on the paradoxical effects that populist parties’ electoral successes might have on social rights protection: on the one hand, when they gain power, these parties often put in place generous welfare programmes (although in most cases to the exclusion of non-citizens); on the other, their reforms can affect precisely those bodies, such as constitutional courts, that are meant to play a crucial rights in the European social rights protection scheme. This conclusive part will be the occasion to reflect upon the future challenges and new stream of inquiries in the field of social rights protection in Europe.