Human Dignity in Judicial Decisions: Principles of Application and the Rule of Law

Authors

• Doron Shultziner, Hadassah Academic College

Abstract

Human dignity has become a central legal concept worldwide and has been increasingly employed in judicial decisions in many jurisdictions, including in countries that do not incorporate it into their constitutions. However, due to the acknowledged vagueness of the concept, scholars and judges alike have identified many difficulties in its application and specific challenges that it poses to the rule of law. This Article addresses those challenges and proposes four formal principles for the use of human dignity in judicial decisions: using the concept strictly in relation to written law; defining the concept and its actual meaning in rulings; maintaining consistency in the use of the concept within current and future decisions; and using the concept only to advance human rights. The Article employs these four principles to evaluate, and to draw lessons from, a range of cases coming from several jurisdictions. A combined qualitative, quantitative and comparative analysis of the use of human dignity reveals its varied meanings and functions: law invalidation and the advancement of LGBT and women's human rights on the one hand; and the limitation of human rights on the other. The Article offers principles that could reduce the problems of obscure appeals to the concept and help to develop consistent and useful doctrines of human dignity.

Disciplines

Constitutional Law | Fourteenth Amendment | Human Rights Law | Law | Law and Society | Rule of Law

Recommended Citation

Doron Shultziner, Human Dignity in Judicial Decisions: Principles of Application and the Rule of Law, 25 Cardozo J. Int'l & Comp. L. 435 (2017).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cjicl/vol25/iss3/3