Overview
- Provides a systematic survey of the concept of human dignity in European legal culture
- Contains theoretical analyses on the meaning of human dignity in all European countries and the EU
- Provides practical examples regarding legislation and legal adjudication
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Table of contents (45 entries)
Keywords
- Inalienable Right
- Legal theory
- Human Dignity in Europe
- European state and the European Union
- Meaning of human dignity
- Human Rights
- Is human dignity inviolable
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Human dignity
- Legal Doctrines of the Rule of Law
- Legal State
- Rechtsstaat
- Human Dignity
- Norms of human dignity
- Individual Rights
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
- European Legal Culture
- Codification of Human Dignity
- Human rights
- Fundamental legal concept
About this book
This handbook provides a systematic overview of the legal concept and the meaning of human dignity for each European state and the European Union. For each of these 43 countries and the EU, it scrutinizes three main aspects: the constitution, legislation, and application of law (court rulings). The book addresses and presents answers to important questions relating to the concept of human dignity. These questions include the following: What is the meaning of human dignity? What is the legal status of the respective human dignity norms? Are human dignity norms of a programmatic nature, or do they establish an individual right which can be invoked before court? Is human dignity inviolable? The volume answers these questions from the perspectives of all European countries.
As a reaction to the barbaric events during World War II, human dignity (dignitas) found its way into international law. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that “[a]llhuman beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” The starting point for developing the concept on a national level was the codification of human dignity in article 1, paragraph 1 of the German Grundgesetz. Consequently, the concept of human dignity spread throughout Europe and, in the context of human rights, became a fundamental legal concept.
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
In 1983 he joined the Law Faculty at the University of Genova as a scientific assistant. Since then, he has held various lectures on the topic of Legal Philosophy and Legal History and developed research in various areas as well as attending a multitude of conventions which brought him within the realm of the German legal culture. In 1999, he was named associate professor for Legal Philosophy at the University of Genova where he currently teaches.
He is a member of the Istituto Italiano di Bioetica, of the Hans-Jonas-Gesellschaft, member of the direction of the Institute for Applied Ethics (Grünstadt) and a member of the Interdisciplinary Center for Medicine and Ethics Law at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. He is the scientific counsultant of the Rechtsphilosophischen Hefte and Editor in Chief of the
magazine "Ragion Pratica".His research focuses on the Legal Philosophy of Hegel, the Philosophy of the Enlightenment period and the History of Codification in the 18th and 19th century as well as Bioethics and Medical l
aw. Becchi has translated works of Hegel, Hans Jonas and Kurt Seelmann to Italian and has published numerous articles, including in German.Since October 2006, Prof. Becchi has been the extra-official Professor for Legal and State Philosophy at the University of Lucerne.
From August 2008 until the End of September, he was the director of the lucernaiuris Institute for Legal Foundations. Since October 1st he is the co-managing director.
In May 2014, Prof. Paolo Becchi received an honorary doctorate from the Law Faculty of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary.
Klaus Mathis grew up in the Canton of Zug, Switzerland, and studied Eco-nomics and Jurisprudence at the University of Z
urich. He was Assistant Lecturer in Legal Philosophy at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zur-ich and wrote his doctoral dissertation, entitled “Efficiency Instead of Jus-tice? Searching for the Philosophical Foundations of the Economic Analy-sis of Law” (1st edn. 2004; 2nd, rev. edn. 2006; 3rd, rev. and exp. edn. 2009). Subsequently he was employed as a Research Associate at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern.From October 1, 2004, he became Senior Lecturer in Public Law and Ad-junct Lecturer in Constitutional Law at the University of Lucerne. He was appointed to an Assistant Professorship on March 1, 2007. Since August 1, 2008, Klaus Mathis has held the tenure-track Professorship
in Public Law and Law of the Sustainable Economy. He is writing a habilitation thesis on Sustainable Development Law. His research interests are Public Law, Phi-losophy of Law and Economic Analysis of Law. He is the editor of the aca-demic book series “Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholar-ship”.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Handbook of Human Dignity in Europe
Editors: Paolo Becchi, Klaus Mathis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27830-8
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Law and Criminology, Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences, Reference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-27830-8Due: 25 March 2021
Topics: Theories of Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal History, Philosophy of Law, Constitutional Law, Ethics, European Law