Social and Liberal Rights. An Account of the 2004 Discussion

Abstract

The first objective of this work is to show that the discussion held in the Discussions Journal Issue Number 4 (2004), particularly Fernando Atria’s intervention, changed the coordinates of the wellknown controversy about the possibility or impossibility to equate the so called social rights with the so called liberal rights (civil and political rights), exposing that this controversy is determined by the tension between the concept and the basis of fundamental rights. Its second objective is to analyze, in terms of its strengths and limitations, Fernando Atria´s theoretical proposal and how it has evolved in more than a decade from its original formulation. Its third objective, starting from this analysis, is to assess the contribution of this proposal on improving the undervalued situation in which social rights are and identify the challenges that, in this task, are still pending.