In Europe, national legal systems tend to regard social rights as subordinate to civil and political rights. Indeed, unlike first-generation human rights, the judicial protection of social rights faces obstacles that are inherent in their nature and formulation.

As the international body responsible for implementing the European Social Charter (ESC), the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) has undertaken precisely the commitment to bring about a fundamental change in this situation. Through civil society organisations (NGOs and labor unions), individuals have access to the collective complaints procedure, whereby complaints may be lodged against a State when it is considered to have violated the commitments it has undertaken as a Contracting Party to the ESC.

Through the case law it has developed and the methods of legal interpretation it applies to the Charter, the ECSR transforms the Charter into a living instrument, capable of ensuring the individual’s autonomy in the social sphere, while also serving as a framework within which States can adopt democratically legitimate policies in matters of labor relations and social policy.

The book is intended for lawyers and judges working in the field of labor law, more broadly in social law, as well as in European human rights law.