The Spanish Minimum Living Income and the Constitutional Guarantee of ‘Adequate Social Assistance and Benefits in Situations of Need’

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relationship between the Spanish minimum vital income and the institutional guarantee of the public Social Security system. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the discussion about the potential of Spanish constitutional law to fight against poverty and social exclusion. In pursuit of this objective, the first part of the article identifies and examines the interpretative guidelines developed by the Constitutional Court regarding the institutional guarantee of the public Social Security system. The second part of the paper discusses the direction and intensity of the control that, in accordance with those guidelines, the Spanish court should exercise over legislative provisions that fail to protect citizens from poverty. With this aim the study draws, on one hand, from the European Court of Human Rights’ doctrine on Article 1 of the Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. On the other hand, it analyzes the doctrine of the German Federal Constitutional Court in relation to the so-called «fundamental right to the guarantee of a minimum standard of living in accordance with human dignity.» The case-law of the German court illustrates the reasons by which a more intense oversight of legislative activity than that exercised by the Strasbourg court could be preferable.