CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM NOTES AND REFLECTIONS

Abstract

Unlike all the constitutional documents that preceded it, the 1980 Charter has included specific guarantees to ensure that all persons have the full right to engage in any economic activity, as well as the right to demand from the State treatment in this matter that is not discriminatory or arbitrary. This is enshrined in Article 19 Nos. 21 and 22, without prejudice to the existence of various other provisions that directly strengthen economic freedom, such as Article 19 No. 23 on the freedom to acquire ownership of all kinds of property, or those that contribute to the validity of economic freedom in more indirect terms, such as Article 19 itself in its Nos. 24 on the right to property, No. 15 on freedom of association, or No. 16 on freedom to work, without forgetting either that the general content of Article 19 in relation to the numerous basic rights that it recognizes and guarantees, configures a system that unequivocally protects the freedoms of individuals and of the intermediate bodies of society.