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1 results

  • 2 - Human Dignity

  • from Part I - Values
  • Edited by Richard Bellamy, University College London, Jeff King, University College London
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory
    Published online:
    27 March 2025
    Print publication:
    24 April 2025, pp 23-37

  • Summary

    How much of a role can human dignity play in constitutional law? It can certainly serve as a foundation of some or all of the rights that a constitution comprises, and it may also figure in the specific content of some of these rights. It may do this explicitly or implicitly – implicitly (as in the US Constitution) when dignity’s role is brought out in legal argument rather than the explicit text. Most rights that protect freedom implicate dignity, but so also do social and economic rights in the constitutions that have them. More generally human dignity may serve as a constitutional value, guiding the interpretation of other provisions: it does this, for example, explicitly in the Constitution of South Africa. It may also underpin the constitutional protection of democracy and the franchise, the rule of law, structures of accountability, the importance of citizenship, and the overall orientation of the provisions of the constitution towards respect for the ordinary people of the country that it governs.