Law and Policies of Social Rights Protection in Europe

The course aims at giving the students the fundamental notions about social rights protection in contemporary democratic systems. The course will focus on the nature of social rights and on the challenges to social rights protection within the crisis of the Welfare state, from a comparative perspective. The first part of the course will deal with different models of social rights protection (U.S.A., South Africa, and Europe). The second part of the course will focus on social rights protection within the EU, in the light of the multiple crises experienced by Europe (economic crisis, migration crisis, rule of law crisis), with a special emphasis on the protection for vulnerable groups (i.e. refugees, low-income people, third-countries nationals). The third part of the course will focus on the crisis of the welfare state and on the design of new policies and the rise of new paradigms for social rights protection.

At the end of the course the students - will be able to discuss the main controversial issues dealing with social rights protection in a comparative perspective; - will be able to understand the complexity of social rights protection and the role of the different institutions in promoting and protecting social rights in a comparative and multilevel perspective; - will be able to understand the relationship between social rights protection, citizenship and democratic participation; - will develop the skills necessary to discuss the most controversial aspect of social rights protection through in-class discussion of case-law and to present in writing critical and argumentative texts.