Unorthodox Competences and the Functional Architecture of EU Social Law

EU social policy encompasses a wide range of fields, including, above all, labour and welfare rights. While primarily framed under Title X TFEU (‘Social Policy’), these matters also surface across other policy domains with no explicit social embedding, notably internal market, free movement and migration. This paper explores a selection of key legislative instruments adopted in these policy areas, aiming to reconstruct the legal, functional, and constitutional ra-tionale behind the pursuit of social objectives beyond the traditional legal framework. Through a detailed mapping and comparison of the selected measures, situated within both their original and current operational contexts, the analysis reveals how different legal bases influence the articula-tion and scope of social entitlements. By situating these developments within the broader archi-tecture of EU governance, the paper offers an insight into the evolving modalities of the Union’s social action and into the tensions arising from the reliance on non-social legal foundations for the advancement of social aims.