CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AS VALUES. ON THE ORIGINS AND CRITIQUES OF DRITTWIRKUNG

Abstract

This article examines the axiological conception of constitutional rights and its implications for the doctrine of Drittwirkung, or the horizontal effect of rights. It traces the origins of this approach to Rudolf Smend's Integrationlehre and its later development in the German Federal Constitutional Court's Lüth decision, where rights were understood as an "objective order of values" permeating the entire legal system. The article also discusses the transformation of rights from defensive guarantees against the State into principles with effects in private law. Finally, it addresses major critiques of this value-oriented approach – including concerns about judicial activism, private autonomy, and the "jurisprudence of values“ – while presenting Robert Alexy's principled theory as an attempt to reconcile constitutional rights, democratic legitimacy, and legal rationality.