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Human Rights and Human Dignity

Module description

What is it that makes us who we are as human beings? What can be said to be unique and special about us as beings, and as individuals? How can the law recognize this? What fundamental concept lies at the heart of human rights law? In this module you will have the opportunity to address these questions by exploring the rise of the exciting and challenging legal concept of human dignity, which has been important in constitutional and human rights law across Europe for many years and first appeared in the UK common law some fifteen years ago in the wake of the Human Rights Act 1998. Human dignity now lies at the heart of a heated international discussion on its merits, risks and meanings in the field of law, and on the ways in which people’s interests can and should be respected and protected through human rights and constitutional law. This module will take you through some of the key stages of the construction of this new legal concept and engage you in discussing some of the key methodological and theoretical issues underpinning it. The module gives you the opportunity to learn about the latest international theoretical discussions on this subject, while focusing on some essential and challenging issues, such as the connections between dignity and autonomy, equality, integrity and human time. The module is also suitable for interdisciplinary pathways. In addition, while it is not formally linked to the access to justice modules (LAW3167 and LAW3172), this module provides a unique basis for them. 

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module's aim is to take you 'behind the scenes' of the development of a new area of legal knowledge, and give you the opportunity to develop familiarity with some of the methodological and theoretical issues involved in the construction of a new legal concept by scholars and judges. The module focuses on key issues raised in the international discussion on human dignity so as to anchor your reflection in a set of examples, while providing you with a range of specific issues illustrating this concept’s actual and potential uses in law.  

The module is suitable for students interested in constitutional law, human rights law, comparative law, legal theory and critical thinking. By engaging you with methodological issues and discussing the apparent paradoxes and difficulties of the concept of dignity, the module is also suitable for students who aspire to practise law, especially in the area of human rights.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate sound knowledge of the selected issues on human dignity considered in the module and a range of major concepts, values and principles relevant to its application;
• 2. Demonstrate awareness of methodological dimensions of the study of human dignity as a legal concept
• 3. Demonstrate awareness of a number of legal, political, social and contextual implications of the areas of human dignity studied;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Define legal problems, identify their relative significance and select appropriate methods for investigating and evaluating them;
• 5. Integrate and assess information from primary and secondary legal sources using appropriate interpretative techniques;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Manage relevant learning resources and develop own arguments and opinions with limited guidance;
• 7. Work independently and manage time efficiently in preparing for scheduled learning activities and assessments.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

1. Introduction to the concept of human dignity: Historical and philosophical origins, post-1945 context, key questions and problems

2. Human dignity and human rights: human dignity as foundation of human rights, selected jurisdictions (e.g. Germany, ECHR, EU and UK), significance of human dignity as foundation of human rights; unresolved questions

3. Specific human dignity and human rights tensions and synergies, e.g. human dignity and equality, human dignity and privacy – human dignity and life – human dignity and prohibition of torture

4. Human dignity conundrums, crises and potentials, e.g. human dignity v autonomy; ‘illiberal’ models of human dignity; human dignity, time and environmental justice; dignity of the non-humans.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

A Barak, Human Dignity: The Constitutional Value and the Constitutional Right (CUP, 2015)

D Bedford, C Dupre, G Halmai and P Kapotas (eds), Dignity and Democracy (E Elgar 2022)

E Daly, Dignity Rights: Courts, Constitutions and the Worth of the Human Person (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013)

C Dupré, Importing the Law in Post-communist transitions, The Hungarian constitutional court and the right to human dignity (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2003)

C Dupré, The Age of Dignity: Human Rights and Constitutionalism in Europe (Bloomsbury/Hart, 2015)

G Kateb, Human Dignity (Harvard University Press, 2011)

C McCrudden (ed), Understanding Dignity   (OUP, 2013)

M Düwell et al (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Human Dignity (CUP, 2014)

Key words search

Human rights – democracy - humanity - Europe