Description
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Age of Dignity: Human Rights and Constitutionalism in Europe 2015 by Dr Catherine Dupre
Human dignity is one of the most challenging and exciting concepts in twenty-first century legal and political philosophy. Fast emerging as a core concept across legal systems a foundational value of the EU and its overarching human rights commitment under the Lisbon Treaty human dignity is still little understood and often mistrusted. Based on extensive comparative and cross-disciplinary research this path-breaking monograph provides an innovative and critical investigation of human dignitys origins development and potential at the heart of European constitutionalism. Highlighting the complex connections among human dignity human rights constitutional law and democracy the book argues that many of the concepts versatile and increasing uses point to a deeper transformation of European constitutionalism and that reclaimed as Europes res publica human dignity can contribute to developing constitutionalism in two directions. These focus on the construction of time re-formulated as open futures rather than rejection of an unwanted past and the reorientation of constitutionalism as a new form of humanism evidenced by the emergence of the work sphere alongside the public and private spheres in human dignity law. Anchored in a detailed analysis of comparative case law (including two supranational courts and the domestic courts of Germany the UK France and Hungary) as well as original theoretical reflection the book provides a new milestone in the study of human dignity and European public law today.