Defining Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights in Constitutional Law

The Predominance of Social Rights

There is a predominance of social rights when contrasted with the broader category of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR).

Defining Social Rights

Social rights are generally understood to include the following categories:

1. Property Holder (Workers): Rights inherent to workers in their social class dimension.
2. Property Holder (Workers) - Group Rights: Rights of those groups (workers, families, children) that express the idea that man is the subject of law not only as an individual but also as a member of a social group.
3. Economic Freedoms: Freedoms that possess economic content.
4. Credit Rights: Rights that materialize as positive benefits provided by the state towards individuals or groups, designed to effectively organize economic and social sectors of collective life.

Interpreting Economic and Cultural Rights

The meaning assigned by authors to the words 'economic' and 'social' often includes corresponding meanings for cultural rights. For example:

• The right to freedom of artistic creation is a cultural right, even if it belongs to the category of freedom.
• The right to education is a right to provision, even though it may be located among fundamental rights and civil liberties.

Non-Mutually Exclusive Classifications of Rights

The classifications that can be made are not mutually exclusive. They include:

• Individual and collective autonomy (freedoms)
• Participation and credit rights (or benefits)
• Civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.

The Semantic Universe of Culture in the Constitution

The linguistic value of the subject of culture in the constitution cannot be justified independently of the semantic universe consisting of the conceptual group: politics, economy, culture, and society, which the basic text utilizes.

The presence of the term 'culture' in the constitution presents a holistic notion of the term. The constitution reserves and articulates a total space that public authorities and legal operators must fill in the development of their respective tasks.

Unit Extension of Positive Culture in the Constitution

The constitution contains a repertoire of terms—education, art, literature, science, sports, research, tourism—that display the semantic field of the general notion of culture. These can be grouped from a logical-semantic perspective:

1. The Core Content of Culture

This comprehensive core content includes the concepts of: art, literature, science, and technology. These concepts also serve a globalizing function of collective notions, referenced in several articles:

• Article 44: Refers to the right to culture and science, including scientific and technical research.
• Article 148.1.17: Addresses the phenomenon of culture and research.
• Article 20.1.b: Defines culture and creative freedom (e.g., literary, artistic freedom).

2. Institutionalizing the Core Group

This group includes the full range of constitutional provisions relating to procedures, activities, and institutions that operate exclusively or partially as a channel for communication, transmission, or creation of art, literature, science, and technology.

A. Education and Enculturation

A fundamental part of this circle is enculturation (the process of learning culture), which takes place through formal and institutional processes. The former have an implicit reference in the Constitution:

• Article 39.3: Imposes duties on parents regarding their children.
• Article 27.2: Defines the object of education: "Education shall be directed to the full development of human personality, respect for democratic principles of coexistence, and fundamental rights and duties."

This concept leads to a group of other vocabulary related to the institutional transmission of culture: education, training, schools. (See Article 27 and freedom of teaching, and Article 20.1.c).

B. Specific Aspects of Enculturation

Specific aspects of enculturation explicitly mentioned in the Constitution include:

• Sport and physical education (Art. 43.3, 148.1.19)
• Health education (Art. 43.3)
• Consumer education (Art. 51.2)