New paper by Sandra Fredman proposes the idea of care as a constitutional value

Sandra Fredman, Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the United States and Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub, has published an article on ‘Care as a constitutional value’.

The article, published in the International Journal of Constitutional Law, explores the potential of regarding care as a constitutional issue, rather than addressing it solely through legislation, the family, or the market. It is argued that care is best regarded as a constitutional value, reflecting the reality of our interdependence, and functioning as a crucial counterweight to the fiction that individual freedom can be constituted independently of our social relations.

This article comes out of Sandy’s longstanding research into the many dimensions of care:  the gendered nature of unpaid care work; the undervaluation and precarity of care-workers; the crucial role of Early Childhood Care and Education for the youngest of our children, and the absence of proper value afforded to adults with care needs.

The article suggests that care as a constitutional value should permeate the interpretation of constitutional and other provisions, and enhance accountability for care-related decisions, encouraging decision-makers to pay attention to care, and prompting courts to interpret constitutional and legislative measures with the value of care in mind. In this way, the gaps in welfare law, labour law, and free market regulation can be addressed to face the challenges of care. Equally importantly, care as a constitutional value can act as a catalyst for political activism, legitimizing grassroots campaigns for better recognition of care.