ABSTRACT
In many states, enforceable social and economic rights (SER) have become a feature of national constitutional law. This represents a remarkable shift in understanding of the purpose and function of constitutional rights protection in liberal democracies. SER receive plenty of lip-service. The majority of national constitutions contain provisions that rhetorically affirm the fundamental character of one or more SER. The assumption that liberal constitutionalism should avoid becoming entangled with issues related to the enjoyment of SER can be turned on its head. The social democratic mode of constitutionalism and equivalent standards at the level of international human rights law have thus failed to escape the gravitational pull of orthodox liberal constitutionalism. A new heterodox strand of constitutionalism is emerging and beginning to pose a real challenge to the dominance of orthodox doctrine. The orthodox position continues to exert a strong grip over the constitutional imagination of many legal and political actors.
