Essay On Human Dignity

The analysis above assumes that the search for the meaning of human dignity in law can be a part of the emergence of this term in a list of legal texts and judicial decisions, in both national and international law. There is, however, another theme regarding the emergence of human dignity in law and this is related to the legal nature of human dignity in the functional mode. In particular, with respect to the practical sense of human dignity, we should explore the legal ground that justifies the role or status of dignity’s norm within the legal frameworks and legal reasoning. Two perspectives on the legal nature of human dignity are commonly possible; formal and substantive.

According to the formal perspective, human dignity operates as a legal concept through its legal form. The first step in this direction attempts to justify the function of dignity as a legal principle, rather than as the idea of right. This justification builds up on the legal theories that distinct the legal principle from other normative legal concepts, such as rules and

On formal account, human dignity is best understood in the term of legal principle. But this account does not fit the nature of human dignity because the dignity norm should not use in term of weighed and balanced like any other legal principle and value. On substantive account, however, human dignity has been represented in the idea of right. Nevertheless, this view provides some content of dignity, it fails to play an elementary role in the nature of law because it involves only with a morality critical to the law. For these reasons to build a most fundamental connection between human dignity and law, we should argue that the norm of dignity neither simply operates as one principle among many nor as a critical morality that is external to the law, but as the substantive basic norm or foundational value of the legal enterprise