ABSTRACT
Constitutional and human rights lawyers and scholars in national, European or international discourse all contemplate the right to equal treatment under the law and equal protection of laws; even though they may use slightly different terminology. The chapter defines the democratic society as the general context where the right is defined and limited. It develops the theory of the scope of the Right to Democratic Belonging as the right to equal belonging. The grounds of distinction which add suspicions for violation of the right to equal belonging are the grounds of unequal belonging. The chapter emphasizes that, for the right to be protected, any reasoning over proportionality can only take place above the threshold of protection the minimum content of the right sets. The theory of the Right to Democratic Belonging is based on a contextual, substantive and purposive analysis of the involved relationships as they stand before and after the enactment of a certain policy.
