The Future of the Fiscal Constitution and Social Rights

To examine these issues, Christian Günther, Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, and Roberto Ramos Obando, Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, organized the workshop “The Future of the Fiscal Constitution: Global Fiscal Governance and the Protection of Social Rights” together with José Manuel Castro Arango, Director of the Center for Fiscal Studies and Research Professor in the Department of Tax Law at Universidad Externado de Colombia. The workshop took place on 9 July 2026 at Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogotá, as part of the World Congress of Constitutional Law, held from 6 to 10 July 2026.

The workshop brought together an international and professionally diverse group of scholars working across constitutional law, tax law, social law, legal philosophy and public policy. Among the participants were Lucy Cruz de Quiñones, President of the Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence, and Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes, Professor Emeritus at the National University of Colombia. The workshop also included Puseletso Letete, Full Professor of Law at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa); Michele Zezza, Professor of Philosophy of Law at the Central University of Chile; and Valeria Cárdenas Berdejo, socio-legal researcher at the National University of San Marcos (Peru). Their contributions brought together African, European and Latin American perspectives on the relationship between fiscal governance and the protection of social rights.

The presentations explored how fiscal policy, from both national and international perspectives, can contribute to the fulfillment of social rights. The discussions approached this relationship from several angles, including constitutional design, legal philosophy, global fiscal governance, the use of fiscal instruments such as tax incentives, and the exercise of executive powers during states of emergency. Taken together, the contributions demonstrated that the fiscal constitution extends beyond rules governing taxation and public expenditure. It also encompasses the legal and institutional arrangements through which states mobilize resources, distribute financial responsibilities, and respond to economic, demographic, and political pressures.

Our colleagues Christian Günther and Roberto Ramos Obando presented the preliminary findings of their comparative research on constitutional mechanisms for financing the right to health in Latin America. Their talk, “Comparing Constitutional Mechanisms that Link Financing to Social Rights,” offered a systematic overview of how Latin American constitutions regulate the collection and pooling of resources for healthcare systems, as well as the purchasing of healthcare services. By examining provisions on minimum expenditure, institutional arrangements, compulsory contributions, sources of financing, and safeguards against the diversion of social funds, the presentation illustrated how constitutional design can influence both the availability of resources and the organization of health systems. The preliminary results also examined whether constitutionalizing financing mechanisms can promote stability and protect social expenditure, while potentially creating rigidity, fragmentation, or inequalities that are difficult to address through ordinary policymaking.

By bringing constitutional, fiscal, and social law perspectives into a common conversation, the workshop highlighted that the effective protection of social rights depends not only on their formal recognition but also on the financial and institutional structures capable of sustaining them.