Solidarity as a Public Virtue?

Building on the theoretical discussion of solidarity as fundamental value of contemporary European legal systems, the chapter discusses in a comparative perspective the significance and the “function” of solidarity in the legal systems as both source of law and paradigm in constitutional litigation, in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the UK. With a special focus on the three research domains of unemployment, disability and immigration/asylum, the essay enquires the multiple dimensions (vertical, horizontal, and transnational) of solidarity and the contested potency of the constitutional value in the times of the European economic crisis. The chapter, with the whole volume, underwent the peer review process required for the Nomos Series "Transnational Perspectives on Transformations in State and Society". The essays builds on the findings of the EU funded research “TransSol -European Paths to transnational solidarity at times of crisis: Conditions, forms, role-models and policy responses”, H2020 EURO-3-2014: European societies after the crisis, Grant agreement N. 649435 (2015-2018). The volume has been launched in Bruxelles, 17 May 2018, in the occasion of the conference "European Solidarity:Conditions, Forms, Limitations and Implications".