Carozza, Paolo G. --- "Human Dignity in Constitutional Adjudication" [2011] ELECD 385; in Ginsburg, Tom; Dixon, Rosalind (eds), "Comparative Constitutional Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Comparative Constitutional Law

Editor(s): Ginsburg, Tom; Dixon, Rosalind

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848445390

Section: Chapter 25

Section Title: Human Dignity in Constitutional Adjudication

Author(s): Carozza, Paolo G.

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

25. Human dignity in constitutional adjudication
Paolo G. Carozza1



Since the mid-twentieth century, the idea of human dignity has emerged as the single most
widely recognized and invoked basis for grounding the idea of human rights generally, and
simultaneously as an exceptionally widespread tool in judicial discourse concerning the
content and scope of specific rights. It has become a pervasive part of the fabric of constitu-
tional law worldwide.2 From South Africa, where judges concluded that dignity requires the
government to implement `a comprehensive and coordinated programme progressively to
realize the right of access to adequate housing' (South Africa v Grootboom 2001, para. 23);
to Israel, where the Supreme Court banned corporal punishment for violating the dignity of
children (Plonit v Israel 2000; see Ezer 2003), to the decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States finding criminal sodomy laws to be unconstitutional (Lawrence v Texas 2003),
courts have assumed responsibility for identifying and guaranteeing the basic requirements of
human dignity. Their decisions not only discuss human dignity but rely on the concept to
explain, justify and determine case outcomes. As the South African Constitutional Court has
put it, `dignity is not only a value fundamental to our constitution, it is a justiciable and
enforceable right that must be respected and protected' (Khosa v Minister of Social
Development 2004, para. 41). The same can be said of a number of other constitutional
systems. For these reasons human dignity has been appropriately described as the `ur-princi-
ple' ...