Abstract

While fundamental rights were born in the State and they need State protection for their implementation, their claim has a different and further foundation. They show a character of universality in contraposition to illegitimate powers. Dialectics, based on the idea of particular powers that realize universal principles, has clearly established itself in the development of contemporary constitutional State, which draws their legitimacy from two different principles: fundamental rights and popular sovereignty. On this basis the essay addresses the question of the positioning of rights beyond the State in the ubiquitous area of governance, particularly in that of the European institutions. They are evaluated in the light of “social constitutionalismµ, based on the indivisible link between civil, political, economic and social rights. Finally, the paper aims to show how problematic is to balance the rights of freedom and the ones of justice in a context such as that of Europe.