In this text, the author tries to demonstrate that beyond the text, the interpretation of economic and social rights often depends on the choices made by judges and on their will to participate to socioeconomic change. To demonstrate this, the author will first mobilize the case law of the Indian Supreme Court; secondly that of the South African Constitutional Court. It will emerge that a constitution which limits socioeconomic rights to mere principles of interpretation does not necessarily constitute an obstacle to the judicial recognition of real economic and social constitutional rights. On the other hand, a clearly progressive constitution, in which all rights have the same normative status, is not a guarantee of a very progressive case law. Indeed, everything depends on the interpretation that judges choose to give to these rights and the interpretation they make of the context.