The Right to Dignity Rex D. Glensy - Columbia Law School

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68 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [43:65 human being’s right to individual selfdetermination. 12 It is thus universal and uninfringeable by the state or private parties. 13 Consequently, the “dignity of the human person as a basic ideal is so generally recognized as to require no independent support.” 14 This suggests that there is agreement as to what dignity might mean at its core, despite the lack of consensus as to what the effect of this meaning might be, especially within the legal sphere. Without a certain specification of how the fostering of human dignity is to play out within a legal framework, we are left with an empty vessel of questionable utility. The centrality of dignity in a democratic society cannot be underestimated. 15 In fact, “[h]uman dignity is . . . bound up with forms of governance,” 16 and is a central feature in a significant amount of modern constitutional states. Indeed, “democracy serve[s] as a core value of state formation because it accord[s] with fundamental notions of fair governance and [gives] expression to the values of human dignity and equality.” 17 One of the key facets of twentyfirst century democracies is the primary importance they give to the protection of human rights. From this perspective, dignity is the “expression of a basic value accepted in a broad sense by all peoples,” 18 and thus “constitutes the first cornerstone in the edifice of 12. In other words, “[h]uman dignity means the specific value status of human beings derived from their humanity as such.” Matthias Mahlmann, The Basic Law at 60 – Human Dignity and the Culture of Republicanism, 11 German L.J. 9, 30 (2010); see also Avishai Margalit, The Decent Society 51–53 (Naomi Goldblum trans., 1996) (stating that dignity inheres in personhood); Gerald L. Neuman, Human Dignity in United States Constitutional Law, in Zur Autonomie des Individuums 249, 249–51 (Dieter Simon & Manfred Weiss eds., 2000) (same). 13. See, e.g., Figueroa Ferrer v. Commonwealth, 7 P.R. Offic. Trans. 278, 301 (1978) (opining that the notion of dignity is “based on principles which aspire to universality”). 14. Oscar Schachter, Human Dignity as a Normative Concept, 77 Am. J. Int’l L. 848, 848850 (1983). 15. See McNabb v. U.S., 318 U.S. 332, 343 (1943) (stating that in “democratic society . . . respect for the dignity of man is central”). 16. Larry Catá Backer, Theocratic Constitutionalism: An Introduction to a New Global Legal Ordering, 16 Ind. J. Global Legal Stud. 85, 101 (2009). 17. Larry Catá Backer, God(s) Over Constitutions: International and Religious Transnational Constitutionalism in the 21 st Century, 27 Miss. C.L. Rev. 11, 57 (2008); see also Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the U.N. General Assembly (Apr. 18, 2008), available at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedic t_xvi/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_benxvi_spe_20080418_unvisit_en.html (referring to “respect for the dignity of the person” as one of the founding principles of the United Nations). 18. Schachter, supra note 14.
2011] The Right to Dignity 69 . . . human rights.” 19 Therefore, there is a certain fundamental value to the notion of human dignity, which some would consider a “pivotal right” deeply rooted in any notion of justice, fairness, and a society based on basic rights. 20 Some nations and international organizations have elevated human dignity to the foundational right underpinning all other rights. 21 Other nations have paired dignity with other fundamental rights, such as liberty and equality, in their jurisprudential treatment. 22 But what about the United States? In America, there is some disagreement as to the importance of human dignity within the domestic legal framework. From the perspective of dignity as a constitutional value, some support its inclusion within the panoply of principles espoused by the foundational document, 23 while others do 19. Paolo G. Carozza, Subsidiarity as a Structural Principle of International Human Rights Law, 97 Am. J. Int’l L. 38, 46 (2003). 20. Guy E. Carmi, Dignity—The Enemy from Within: A Theoretical and Comparative Analysis of Human Dignity as a Free Speech Justification, 9 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 957, 966 (2007) (comparing the central place of human dignity in European human rights discourse after World War II to rights discourse in the United States). 21. See, e.g., Eberle, supra note 11, at 968–72 (noting that, among rights enumerated in the German Constitution, human dignity is inalienable and the essence of social guarantees); see generally D. Kretzmer & E. Klein, The concept of Human Dignity in Human Rights Discourse (2002) (underlining the centrality of human dignity within the contemporary international human rights conversation in the wake of World War II). 22. See Izhak Englard, Human Dignity: From Antiquity to Modern Israel’s Constitutional Framework, 21 Cardozo L. Rev. 1903, 1925 (2000) (explaining how dignity is paired with the concept of liberty under Israel’s Basic Law framework). See discussion infra Part III (discussing the interplay between dignity and other recognized rights). 23. See, e.g., Walter F. Murphy, An Ordering of Constitutional Values, 53 S. Cal. L. Rev. 703, 758 (1980) (specifying that “[t]he fundamental value that constitutionalism protects is human dignity”); Ronald Dworkin, Freedom’s Law 1 38 (1996) (explaining that the U.S. Constitution embodies the protection of abstract human values such as dignity); Maxine D. Goodman, Human Dignity in Supreme Court Constitutional Jurisprudence, 84 Neb. L. Rev. 740, 789 (2006) (advocating that the Supreme Court should expressly recognize human dignity as underlying certain constitutional rights); Maxine Eichner, Families, Human Dignity, and State Support for Caretaking: Why the United States’ Failure to Ameliorate the WorkFamily Conflict is a Dereliction of the Government’s Basic Responsibilities, 88 N.C. L. Rev. 1593, 1596 (2010) (arguing that “the respect for human dignity [is] at the root of the United States’ liberal democratic understanding of itself”).
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