The Constitutional Status of Economic Rights: Reconciling Normative Guarantees with the Exigencies of Economic Regulation

Abstract

This article examines the constitutional problem posed by elevating economic rights to the status of binding normative guarantees. At the same time, the state retains sovereign powers of economic regulation to protect the public economic order. It highlights the legal tension between enforcing these constitutional rights and regulatory policies tied to the criterion of “available resources.” To mediate this conflict, the article emphasizes the centrality of constitutional review, particularly the plea of unconstitutionality, as a means of limiting legislative discretion. Legislative restrictions must therefore be subjected to the principle of proportionality in all its dimensions to ensure that the essential core of rights is not impaired. The article further stresses the need to give effect to legal certainty, legitimate expectations, and the prohibition of regression from vested rights, with a view to safeguarding legal positions against abrupt legislative amendments. It concludes that the constitutional judge must assume an active role in shaping economic security while exercising judicial self-restraint regarding economic expediency, in accordance with the principle of separation of powers.