Human Dignity in Constitutional Adjudication

Abstract

This chapter, for a forthcoming research handbook of comparative constitutional law, provides a broad overview of comparative case law and scholarship regarding the use of the idea of human dignity in constitutional adjudication. The chapter notes both the core common meanings accorded to the status and the principle of dignity, and also the high degree of variation and indeterminacy that they have in a variety of contentious contexts. The chapter then proposes a loose taxonomy of (a) different categories of constitutional issues in which human dignity is invoked, and (b) different functional purposes that the judicial invocation and discussion of human dignity typically serves. The overall aim is to help provide a framework for ongoing research and analysis of human dignity across a variety of different constitutional and international jurisdictions.

Keywords: human dignity, human rights adjudication, comparative constitutional law ; international human rights