European Journal of Social Security

Issue Number

Latest documents

• Book Review: The Quantified Worker. Law and Technology in the Modern Workplace by Ifeoma Ajunwa
• The rights to social security and social assistance in the European Social Charter: Towards a positive content…but what sort of content?

  The rights to social security and social assistance are protected by the European Social Charter and its quasi-judicial body, the European Committee of Social Rights. Less is known about the precise content of these rights. Following a decision, published on 15 February 2023, on a collective complaint lodged by the Finnish Society of Social Rights, an NGO, this paper proposes to critically question the positive content given by the Committee to these rights, when it attaches – and even assimilates – certain legal requirements to one specific social indicator, the poverty threshold, defined restrictively.

• Popular support for a universal basic income – still sensitive to playing the immigration card?

  This article aims to investigate the persuasive power of immigration on people's attitudes towards a universal basic income (UBI). We use a survey experiment in which respondents, after being asked about their immediate reaction to the idea of introducing an unconditional basic income, are confronted with a counterargument referring to immigration. The experiment was undertaken in November 2021 as part of the Norwegian Citizen Panel, a representative research-purpose internet panel, and replicates a similar survey experiment carried out among Norwegian voters in 2003. In the previous study, a large share of the respondents abandoned their initial position when exposed to counterarguments referring to immigration. The results of the present experiment confirm that immigration has substantial persuasive power as a counterargument among initial supporters of a UBI, also in the contemporary Norwegian context. Contrary to the previous study, we find a strong negative relationship between scepticism about immigration and the propensity to initially support a UBI proposal, but – as in the previous study – we find that having negative attitudes towards immigration is strongly associated with a tendency to abandon an initially supportive stance. Our findings give support to the core of the so-called ‘progressive's dilemma’: that immigration may erode support for ambitious welfare policies, particularly among traditionally pro-welfare state segments of the electorate.

• Book Review: Human Needs and the Welfare State by Bent Greve
• Book Review: The Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by Angelika Nussberger and David Landau (eds)
• Crossing borders and moving frontiers: Coordinating European social security for modern cases of global mobility

  Modern cases of global mobility cause legal ambiguities as to which conflict rules to apply to govern the applicable social security legislation. Relevant to this end is the question of whether the situation is governed by the lex loci laboris principle, the posting provision, or the rules on normal work in two or more Member States under EC Regulation 883/2004. Each of these three legal mechanisms must be distinguished from each other. First, this article proposes a structure for handling such distinctions. Secondly, it discusses how these distinctions are made. It is concluded that the posting provision has a wide scope of applicability whereas the scope of applicability of the rules on normal work in two or more Member States has been narrowed. On the basis of the legal description, this article analyses a catalogue of standard cases of modern mobility for which it is not clear whether the posting rules or the rules on normal work in two or more Member States apply. As the tendency drives towards temporary global mobility setups, a starting point is that the posting rule applies. The article concludes that the current EU rules on the applicable social security legislation have substantial flexibility for managing new cases of global mobility.

• Book Review: Youth Employment Insecurity and Pension Adequacy by Dirk Hofäcker and Kati Kuitto (eds.)
• Book Review: Western Welfare Capitalisms in Good Times and Bad by Bruce Headey, Ruud Muffels and John Quiggin
• Establishing Healthcare Discrimination: An Analysis of Scandinavian Equality Boards

  Discrimination in healthcare is a pervasive issue faced by patients, affecting their access to treatment and overall well-being. This article examines the forms of healthcare discrimination recognised by Scandinavian equality boards through a comparative analysis of their decisions. While social science studies have established the existence of discrimination based on ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, and age, proving such discrimination in legal terms poses significant challenges. An analysis of board decisions reveals that patients face barriers in establishing legally actionable discrimination, as perceived discriminatory conduct may not meet the criteria for legal claims. Additionally, equality boards are often hesitant to intervene in medical decision-making processes, further complicating the path to legal recourse. Lack of evidentiary support, especially in cases of unconscious bias, makes it difficult for some patients to substantiate claims of discrimination. The findings underscore the complexities of addressing healthcare discrimination through legal means. To effectively combat discrimination, there is a need to clarify the goals of discrimination law in the healthcare context and consider its future application within the broader context of human rights and equality.

• Re-Interpreting Basic Values Underlying Social Security Law In Times of Climate Change and Ecological Crisis

  Shaping solidarity, guaranteeing basic subsistence, maintaining income and employment activation can be seen as basic values underlying social security law in many European welfare states. This article argues that the meaning of these values or concepts is determined by legitimating discourses within which they are interpreted. While so far Rawls's theory of justice and related egalitarian liberal philosophies have had a great impact on these discourses, the ecological crisis has given rise to new discourses which are inspired by neo-republican theory and green republicanism. Instead of legitimising a capitalist economy based on economic growth, these discourses promote a post-productive society that seeks to realise human flourishing and meaningful lives. The aim of this article is to contribute to the emerging debate on social security reform by explaining how neo-republican theory and green republicanism can fill social security law's basic values or concepts with meaning that is more in line with current ecological concerns. In contrast to previous contributions that have sought to rethink labour and social security law (‘social law’) in a way that is more compatible with our ecological and climate crisis, this article builds on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory to develop its argument.

Featured documents

• Articles Originally Presented at the Eiss Conference on Federalism and Subsidiarity in Social Security in Rome, September 2004: Old-Age Benefits and Decentralisation: The Spanish Case in Comparative Perspective

  The decentralisation of social security in general, and old-age pensions in particular, has been proposed by several nationalist parties in Spain. The purpose of this article is to analyse the rationality of this proposal, taking into account efficiency and equity issues. It is divided into four...

• Book Review: Das Menschenrecht auf Soziale Grundsicherung aus Art. 9 und Art. 11 ICESCR
• What does it mean to be rich? Some conceptual and empirical issues

  Over the past decade, a growing literature has shed light on the rise of inequalities at the very top of the income distribution. There is no doubt that such extreme inequalities do threaten social cohesion and that some public policies are needed in order to tackle this issue. The design of these...

• Social Protection for Migrant Workers: National and International Policy Challenges

  In the current global context, many migrant workers, and in particular women and irregular workers, are not - or are very inadequately - covered by social security and other social protection programmes. Current human rights standards related to migrant workers and families have so far had little...

• Overview of recent cases before the court of justice of the European Union (February 2019-June 2019)

  In the reporting period (February 2019-June 2019), the Court of Justice of the European Union did not deliver any ground breaking rulings that really altered existing coordination rules on social security. Nonetheless, the Court did rule in various interesting cases. These include the material...

• Book review: Social Security and the Politics of Deservingness
• Index
• Towards a European Pension Policy? The Possible Impact of the European Commission's Green Paper ‘Towards Adequate, Sustainable and Safe European Pension Systems’ on National Pension Strategies

  The Green Paper provoked angry headlines after fixing 70 as the compulsory retirement age and reducing pension income. This article outlines some ideas and findings for developing pension issues at the EU level and examines possible impacts on national pension systems. The recent financial crisis...

• Labour Market Activation Policies for the Long-Term Ill – A Sick Idea?

  This paper addresses the failure of activation programmes to achieve a rapid return to work when they are directed towards the long-term ill. The empirical basis for the paper is an analysis of the outcomes for 691 individuals in Sweden chosen for a reactivation policy programme to shorten their...

• Editorial