Socialinės asmens teisės ir jų konstitucionalizacija Lietuvoje

Abstract

The article analyses problems of the legitimation of social rights and their constitutionalization in Lithuania. It is emphasized that a fundamental interest in having a decent (dignified) life could be hold a fundament of social human rights. This interest is a very complexed: 1) autonomy and 2) wellbeing are two privileged conditions of a fundamental interest in having a decent (dignified) life. A central idea in the concept of autonomy is that individuals decide for themselves what they think about any given question, what they want to do with their life and whether and how they want to change it. Namely autonomy is such a condition which doesn't allow to forget that a man having social human rights is responsible to take care of his/her own well-being by his/her self, but not to rely solely on the social assistance guaranteed by the state. The conclusion that social human rights have a juridical character, that they don't destroy justice as fairness is formulated in the article. Conceptually social rights are universal rights; every human being has these rights. However realization of these rights begins when a person meets unfavourable conditions, when a duty to the society and the state raises to guarantee his/her fundamental interest in having a decent (dignified) life.
The article discloses that formal principle of the social state establishing directives of the state's and it's institutions distributive powers is accentuated in the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. According to the Constitutional Court social assistance given to a person should not become a privilege, it should not create preconditions for a person not to strive for a higher income, not to search for possibilities to ensure to oneself and one’s family by one’s own effort the living conditions that are in line with human dignity.