- Title Pages
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Preface
- Notes on Contributors
- 1 In Pursuit of Human Dignity: An Introduction to Current Debates
- 2 Dignité/Dignidade: Organizing against Threats to Dignity in Societies after Slavery
- 3 Würde des Menschen: Restoring Human Dignity in Post-Nazi Germany
- 4 The Secret History of Constitutional Dignity
- 5 Constructing the Meaning of Human Dignity: Four Questions
- 6 Human Dignity: Experience and History, Practical Reason and Faith
- 7 Dignity: The Case Against
- 8 Socio-Economic Rights, Basic Needs, and Human Dignity: A Perspective from Law's Front Line
- 9 The Triple Dilemma of Human Dignity: A Case Study
- 10 Dignity Rather than Rights
- 11 Dignity, Person, and Imago Trinitatis
- 12 Human Dignity and the Image of God
- 13 Dignity as an Eschatological Concept
- 14 The Vanishing Absolute and the Deconsecrated God: A Theological Reflection on Revelation, Law, and Human Dignity
- 15 A Christian Theological Account of Human Worth
- 16 Human Dignity and the Foundations of Human Rights
- 17 In Defence of Human Dignity:Comments on Kant and Rosen
- 18 Citizenship and Dignity
- 19 Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Simply Trying to Do the Right Thing
- 20 Human Dignity: The Constitutional Value and the Constitutional Right
- 21 Dignity in a Legal Context: Dignity as an Absolute Right
- 22 Human Dignity in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights
- 23 Justifying Freedom of Religion: Does ‘Dignity’ Help?
- 24 Which Dignity? Which Religious Freedom?
- 25 From Imago Dei to Mutual Recognition: The Evolution of the Concept of Human Dignity in the Light of the Defence of Religious Freedom
- 26 ‘A Communion in Good Living’: Human Dignity and Religious Liberty beyond the Overlapping Consensus
- 27 Dignity and Disgrace: Moral Citizenship and Constitutional Protection
- 28 The Dignity of Marriage
- 29 Response to Tollefsen and Cameron
- 30 Dignity and the Duty to Protect Unborn Life
- 31 Is Dignity Language Useful in Bioethical Discussion of Assisted Suicide and Abortion?
- 32 Dignity, Choice, and Circumstances
- 33 Human Dignity, Interiority, and Poverty
- 34 Dignity as Perception: Recognition of the Human Individual and the Individual Animal in Legal Thought
- 35 The Good Sense of Dignity: Six Antidotes to Dignity Fatigue in Ethics and Law
- 36 Human Rights, Human Dignity,and Human Experience
- 37 The Concept of Human Dignity: Current Usages, Future Discourses
- 38 Discourses of Dignity
- 39 Dignified Disciplinarity: Towards a Transdisciplinary Understanding of Human Dignity
- Select Bibliography
- Tables of Cases, and Other Legal Authorities
- Index
Dignity in a Legal Context: Dignity as an Absolute Right
Dignity in a Legal Context: Dignity as an Absolute Right
- Chapter:
- (p.381) 21 Dignity in a Legal Context: Dignity as an Absolute Right
- Source:
- Understanding Human Dignity
- Author(s):
Dieter Grimm
- Publisher:
- British Academy
This chapter concentrates on dignity as a legal notion. Which difference does it make if a term like ‘dignity’ appears in a theological or a philosophical text or in a law? What happens when an existing idea of dignity is endowed with legal validity? The specific way of existence of a legal norm is its validity (Geltung). It requires compliance. Yet, while laws are formulated in general and abstract terms, the requirement for compliance arises in concrete situations. The gap between the abstract norm and the concrete case has to be bridged by interpretation. What are the guidelines for interpretation? Does the interpretation of a legal text differ from the interpretation of, say, a philosophical text? Is it possible to use philosophical or theological authorities to interpret a legal notion? In other words, can a legal decision be justified by non-legal considerations? The second part of the chapter concentrates on one legal problem peculiar to the notion of dignity. In some jurisdictions, Germany included, dignity is regarded as an absolute right. Absolute rights are extremely rare and raise a number of problems. Can the idea of an absolute right be consistently upheld in legal practice? What follows from the absolute character of a right for its scope? What follows for the definition of the value, good or interest that is protected by dignity? Can there be more than one absolute right in a given legal order? These problems are avoided in legal systems that treat dignity as a fundamental right like others. But does this pay sufficient attention to the reasons for which dignity claims a particularly prominent place in post World War II constitutionalism?
Keywords: German Basic Law, legal interpretation of dignity, dignity as an absolute right
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- Title Pages
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Preface
- Notes on Contributors
- 1 In Pursuit of Human Dignity: An Introduction to Current Debates
- 2 Dignité/Dignidade: Organizing against Threats to Dignity in Societies after Slavery
- 3 Würde des Menschen: Restoring Human Dignity in Post-Nazi Germany
- 4 The Secret History of Constitutional Dignity
- 5 Constructing the Meaning of Human Dignity: Four Questions
- 6 Human Dignity: Experience and History, Practical Reason and Faith
- 7 Dignity: The Case Against
- 8 Socio-Economic Rights, Basic Needs, and Human Dignity: A Perspective from Law's Front Line
- 9 The Triple Dilemma of Human Dignity: A Case Study
- 10 Dignity Rather than Rights
- 11 Dignity, Person, and Imago Trinitatis
- 12 Human Dignity and the Image of God
- 13 Dignity as an Eschatological Concept
- 14 The Vanishing Absolute and the Deconsecrated God: A Theological Reflection on Revelation, Law, and Human Dignity
- 15 A Christian Theological Account of Human Worth
- 16 Human Dignity and the Foundations of Human Rights
- 17 In Defence of Human Dignity:Comments on Kant and Rosen
- 18 Citizenship and Dignity
- 19 Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Simply Trying to Do the Right Thing
- 20 Human Dignity: The Constitutional Value and the Constitutional Right
- 21 Dignity in a Legal Context: Dignity as an Absolute Right
- 22 Human Dignity in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights
- 23 Justifying Freedom of Religion: Does ‘Dignity’ Help?
- 24 Which Dignity? Which Religious Freedom?
- 25 From Imago Dei to Mutual Recognition: The Evolution of the Concept of Human Dignity in the Light of the Defence of Religious Freedom
- 26 ‘A Communion in Good Living’: Human Dignity and Religious Liberty beyond the Overlapping Consensus
- 27 Dignity and Disgrace: Moral Citizenship and Constitutional Protection
- 28 The Dignity of Marriage
- 29 Response to Tollefsen and Cameron
- 30 Dignity and the Duty to Protect Unborn Life
- 31 Is Dignity Language Useful in Bioethical Discussion of Assisted Suicide and Abortion?
- 32 Dignity, Choice, and Circumstances
- 33 Human Dignity, Interiority, and Poverty
- 34 Dignity as Perception: Recognition of the Human Individual and the Individual Animal in Legal Thought
- 35 The Good Sense of Dignity: Six Antidotes to Dignity Fatigue in Ethics and Law
- 36 Human Rights, Human Dignity,and Human Experience
- 37 The Concept of Human Dignity: Current Usages, Future Discourses
- 38 Discourses of Dignity
- 39 Dignified Disciplinarity: Towards a Transdisciplinary Understanding of Human Dignity
- Select Bibliography
- Tables of Cases, and Other Legal Authorities
- Index
