Freedom of Labor in the context of Constitutionalization of Social and Labor Relations: History and Current State

Abstract

Constitutionalization of social and labor relations represents a manifestation of the general process of involving into the scope of constitutional law such areas of public life that are traditionally included in the subject matter of special branches of law. The reasons for the constitutionalization of these relations lie in the change in the vector of state social policy, which is gradually moving away from liberal individualist principles and strives to ensure social justice in society. The practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation can be deemed to be an external manifestation of the changed vector. The Constitutional Court in the last few years has given a deeper meaning to constitutional provisions in the field of labor, and the decisions taken reflect the connection between freedom of work and the principle of the welfare state and the novelties of the Constitution — Part 5 of Article 75 and Article 75.1. Provisions of the social and labor nature were included in all constitutions of the Soviet period, just as they are present in most constitutions of foreign countries, where they primarily act as principles of the state, and only secondarily as subjective rights and freedoms. It is concluded that the status and semantic content of these provisions in the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993 did not initially correspond to their social and legal significance. Freedom of labor was understood in a liberal way and was associated with the right of a citizen to choose a type of activity and profession. The 2020 amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation supplemented the content of the constitutional value of freedom of labor, emphasized its status as an element of the social state, linked it with such concepts as respect for labor and the person of labor, social solidarity, decent human development, which is reflected in the latest decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. There are grounds to assert that the subject of constitutional law has changed due to the constitutionalization of social and labor relations, on which constitutional law exerts its influence in the context of interaction between an individual, society and the state.