The constitutions adopted in the second half of the twentieth century and the international and transnational legal sources all recognise 'social rights'. According to the Italian legal literature and jurisprudence, social rights may be not considered as real individual rights. This is because of their constitutional origin: their content seems to be 'moral' and not economically measurable, and they are expected to satisfy a public more than an individual interest. However, based on European legal sources, this paper seeks to show that such exceptions can be overcome and that social rights are genuine individual rights. As a matter of fact, social rights may be protected by the courts, particularly with the help of the instruments made available by private law.