Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.12, 2019

 

The Constitutional Logic of the Protection of Economic Rights

(Abstract)

 

Zhai Guoqiang

 

Since the present Constitution came into force, accompanying the establishment and improvement of the market economy system, economic rights have been confirmed and guaranteed in the Constitution. With the further implementation of the Constitution, the model that protects these rights has been improved in conjunction with the relevant institutional systems. The historical stages of constitutional development show that the historical issues and value orientations of China’s protection of economic rights are different from those of other rule of law countries: China’s choice of a legal security model for economic rights has its own theoretical logic. Therefore, China should take its stand on an institutional model in which China constructs its rule of law based on its own realities and in accord with its own situation. Against the background of economic globalization, the value-oriented choice of a model protecting economic rights should be grasped in the context of the overall sweep of worldwide constitutional history or the larger pattern of development. Comparative constitutional history shows that it is necessary to seek a value orientation that falls between an early modern constitution and a modern one, balancing and choosing between formal and substantive equality, gradually moving from a policy guarantee to a legal guarantee, and eventually setting up a complete legal system for the protection of economic rights by integrating different safeguards at the constitutional level.