Book Review: Social Rights in Europe in an Age of Austerity
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663918809280 |
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| Author | Ingrid Leijten |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
STEFANO CIVITARESE MATTEUCCI AND SIMON HALLIDAY (eds), Social Rights in Europe in an
Age of Austerity. London/New York: Routledge (Critical Studies in Jurisprudence Series), 2017, pp.
300, ISBN 978-1-138-70059-8, £95 (hbk).
Social Rights in Europe in an Age of Austerity offers more than a mere track of austerity
measures and social rights developments in different European states. The questions it
poses are bigger and more challenging. They concern the relation between the welfare
state, public law and social rights, a connection that is regularly overlooked yet lies at the
heart of what our concern with social rights should be about. In this review, I set out
some of the main contributions of the volume and point to some potential contradictions
surfacing in the book. I will also look at the book’s limitations and at the questions the
book leaves unanswered.
The Introduction (Part I) places the book within the broader realm of social rights
scholarship. As Civitarese Matteucci and Halliday note, the increased scholarly attention
for social rights focuses on the develo ping world rather than mature welfare s tates.
Attention moreover has centred on the constitutionalization of social rights and on how
courts (should) adjudicate them. It is important, the editors explain , to look beyond
constitutional guarantees and locate the study of social rights within broader u nder-
standings of public law and the operations of the welfare state. Other public law rights
and provisions may prove as helpful in hampering austerity welfare reforms, while the
changing relation between capitalism and welfare spending provides an indispensable
backdrop.
Part II presents five European case studies (of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the
United Kingdom; Chapters 2–6). Each of these ‘sets out the constitutional position of
social rights in the country; examines recent changes, under the rubric of austerity, to
areas of law and policy that pertain to social rig hts; and then explores the attempts
through litigation to use public law rights to protect the welfare of the poor against
austerity reforms’ (p. 14). I cannot summarize the studies separately, but let me mention
some common findings. First, unsurprisingly, reforms have characterized social policy in
all countries, albeit these have not necessarily come into place only after 2008. Reforms
range from housing to health and social security, but an emphasis is visible on ‘working-
age benefits’, that is, targeting those out of work. Consider the Hartz IV reforms in
Germany discussed by Lembke or the benefit caps and sanctions in the United Kingdom
mentioned by Meers. These underline the point made in the introduction of the book
about the cultural dimension of social welfare. ‘Moral desert perceptions’ tied to
Social & Legal Studies
2019, Vol. 28(1) 124–134
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0964663918809280
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