PROPERTY PROTECTION OF SOCIAL RIGHTS: PERSPECTIVES OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE SLOVENIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Abstract

Following the in-depth introduction, in which the vivid relationship between proprietary
entitlements and social security is depicted, the authors focus on ways in which the right to
social security has been merged with the right to property by the European Court of Human
Rights (ECtHR) and the Slovenian Constitutional Court. Due to the comprehensive state of the
art concerning proprietary (property) protection of both contribution- and tax-based social
security benefits in front of the ECtHR, the authors try to add to the debate by means of
including a comprehensive theoretical starting point to the abovementioned merger of property
rights and social rights, whilst providing the reader not only with an overview of the ECtHR’s
most relevant case-law but also with predictions on the possible future role of property
protection of social rights in times of ageing European societies. In the discussion, they also
include relevant case-law of the Slovenian Constitutional Court, which in a relatively short
period of time, following an almost proverbial conceptual shift from communal to the individual
understanding of property, developed rich jurisprudence in the field of property protection of
social security benefits, fore and foremost property protection of pension rights.