The paper begins with a definition of hard soils and soft rocks (HSSR); this is followed by a short overview of the typical stress-strain behavior of HSSR. It is shown that in spite of the differences in the origin, type and strength of materials, similar stress-strain behaviors can be observed for different materials, ranging from soils to rocks. Based on this observed similarity a theoretical framework can be postulated, with which an appropriate constitutive model for HSSR can beformulated. This model includes the concepts of structure and destructurization as intrinsic material properties. A model named S-BRICK that takes into account the structure and destructurization has been developed and a comparison of this models predictions with laboratory results is presented.