The crisis faced by the modern welfare state in the face of "globalization" and the "new world order", as well as its "guild" and bureaucratic deviations that provide weapons - or merely pretexts - for its contestation, are significant parameters of the contemporary problematic of social rights.

The studies included in this volume focus on the peculiar character and protective scope of social rights, on one hand under the general prism of contemporary issues of the welfare state at the national and European level, and on the other hand under the lens of specific themes such as employment, social security, education, and health.

However, a common denominator of all studies is the integration of social rights into the broader framework of specific constitutional mandates, the constitutional obligation of the state to take positive measures, the possibility or not of monopolizing the provision of social services by it, and finally, the concept and limits of the "social acquis".

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]