Do Social Rights Deserve a Special Constitutional Protection? On Luigi Ferrajoli’s and Frank Michelman’s Democratic Theory

Within contemporary democratic constitutionalism, social rights are assumed as one of the most debated issues. This article offers an insight into the question about a possible constitutionalization of social rights, by proposing an analysis of such an issue within the liberal-democratic constitutional theory. The key question of this paper asks whether social rights should deserve a special constitutional protection or not. Thus, the purpose of this article is to give an answer to such a question, by comparing the Italian legal scholar Luigi Ferrajoli with Frank Michelman, two of the most distinguished contemporary constitutional theorists.