Menschenwürde im 21. Jahrhundert | Dignidade Humana no Século XXI

Following a long-standing philosophical debate, human dignity has become a central term in constitutional law in many states today. Whether it pointedly opens the constitutional text (as in Germany), is mentioned repeatedly throughout the constitution (Brazil) or can hardly be found at all in the constitution (Austria), human dignity has deeply entrenched itself into those countries’ legal systems, and the pioneer of this development was public international law. The authors in this volume analyse similarities but also differences in the conceptualisation, effect and the application of the principle of human dignity by each countries’ respective courts.
The authors discuss the question of the relative or absolute character of dignity as an axiom or fundamental right, its effects on welfare law and bioethics as well as the role constitutional courts play in the specification of human dignity in relation to parliamentary legislators.

With contributions by
Ana Paula Barbosa, Martin Borowski, Christoph Enders, Monia Hennig-Leal, Stephan Kirste, Robert Kogler und Kirsten Schmalenbach, Ingo Sarlet, Silvia Traunwieser, Tadeu Weber.