Sozialrecht in der Zeit

The social law of a state operates across both space and time. Eberhard Eichenhofer explores the following question: What are the implications of the temporal nature of social law? Social law structures the course of human life, shapes people's living conditions, and becomes particularly relevant during transitions into new phases of life. Social law is embedded in history; it became necessary as a form of social technology and a principle of social organization due to particular social conditions, and possible through scientific insights and philosophical thought.
Social law establishes social rights with the aim of achieving social justice: securing livelihoods and protecting individuals against social risks. In doing so, it does not alter the primary distribution of resources generated by the economy but builds social rights upon the foundations of a privately organized and highly specialized economy. Because it is oriented toward the present, rooted in the past, and broadly concerned with safeguarding the future, social law possesses a complex temporal structure.
Its temporal dimension is perceived differently in legislation, adjudication, and administrative implementation. It connects generations and thereby binds them to one another, giving rise to questions of distribution and intergenerational justice. The ageing of society poses fundamental challenges to social law, just as social law profoundly challenges society in return. Social law also gains importance in the context of ecological transformation, as it bears the social costs of that transformation and accompanies socially the transition to more environmentally sustainable technologies and ways of life.
Social law is facing far-reaching reforms, as exemplified by the current reform of old-age provision. How should these plans be assessed? Social law exists in time and must prove itself within it.