SOCIAL RIGHTS LEGAL REGULATION IN STATES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE (1870s – 1930s)

Abstract

The article explores the historical and legal prerequisites for the emergence and development of legal regulation of social rights in Central and Eastern European states during the period from the 1870s to the beginning of the Second World War. It elucidates the main factors influencing the development of normative definition of social rights during the period of nations being part of empires and after gaining their independence. The primary legislative acts and constitutional norms related to the subject of research in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia are identified. Special attention is given to the norms of constitutions adopted after the end of the First World War and the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty in 1919, which defined at the highest level the basic principles of social protection of the population. An overview is provided of the set of social rights enshrined in legal norms in specific time periods aimed at protecting economically vulnerable groups of the population (children, mothers, persons with disabilities, elderly), as well as workers who found themselves in difficult circumstances due to unemployment, loss of ability to work, or illness. During this historical period, there was an expansion of the list of social groups that, according to the legislation, required special protection and social security. Thus, the role of the state significantly transformed from providing social security to its representatives (officials and military personnel) to seeking mechanisms for implementing a humanistic approach to a wider range of individuals who were unable to provide for themselves independently due to objective circumstances. A correlation between the states’ efforts to address internal social issues and prevent the spread of Bolshevik ideas with active lawmaking aimed at consolidating and implementing basic social rights for a wide range of citizens is established. The most common cases of using insurance as a mechanism of social security and achieving an adequate standard of living for economically vulnerable social groups in the mentioned states are described. The existence of common features in the development of social rights in Central and Eastern European states during the period from the 1870s to the beginning of the Second World War is proven. The research employs historical-legal and comparative-legal methods, as well as the inductive method to determine common features of processes of legal regulation of social rights.