Albert Chen and Ulrike Davy on Social rights thinking and the welfare state: The cases of Germany and China—Afterword to the Foreword by Nehal Bhuta (International Journal of Constitutional Law)

"Social rights thinking and the welfare state: The cases of Germany and China—Afterword to the Foreword by Nehal Bhuta"
Ulrike Davy, Albert Chen
International Journal of Constitutional Law
Published online: February 2026

Abstract: Our Afterword to Nehal Bhuta’s Foreword “Social rights and the origins of the social constitution: From collective natural rights to the social state” first addresses Bhuta’s account of developments in nineteenth-century German states (unified in 1871), in particular the writings of Lorenz von Stein and the activities of the Verein für Sozialpolitik (VfS). Second, it considers Bhuta’s Foreword from the perspective of social rights and social policies in the global South, using China as an example. Our Afterword suggests that in nineteenth-century Germany and twentieth-century China, the emergence of a state that accepts responsibility for individuals’ welfare was not necessarily preceded by, or a consequence of, social rights thinking. Instead, other rationales prevailed.