Social Rights in an Age of Austerity: European Perspectives

This collection of essays provides an examination of legal reforms of, and legal struggles over, social welfare rights in Europe, focusing on the period since the global economic crisis of 2008. It draws on six descriptive national case studies, representing the biggest European economies - UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden - as a foundation for theoretical work on socio-economic rights. This theory-building runs along two complementary lines.

First, it considers the promise and/or limits of public law rights, including fundamental rights, for protecting social welfare in times of economic crisis. Second, it considers the particular significance of the European context for these articulations of, and struggles over, social welfare rights. Employing a range and depth of expertise across Europe, the book constitutes a timely and highly significant contribution to socio-legal scholarship about the character and resilience of social rights in our national and regional constitutional settings.