Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this volume explores the reality of the principle of human dignity - a core value which is increasingly invoked in our societies and legal systems. This book provides a systematic overview of the legal and philosophical concept in sixteen countries representing different cultural and religious contexts and examines in particular its use in a developing case law (including of the European Court of Human Rights and of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights). Whilst omnipresent in the context of bioethics, this book reveals its wider use in healthcare more generally, treatment of prisoners, education, employment, and matters of life and death in many countries.

In this unique comparative work, contributing authors share a multidisciplinary analysis of the use (and potential misuse) of the principle of dignity in Europe, Africa, South and North America and Asia. By revealing the ambivalence of human dignity in a wide range of cultures and contexts and through the evolving reality of case law, this book is a valuable resource for students, scholars and professionals working in bioethics, medicine, social sciences and law. Ultimately, it will make all those who invoke the principle of human dignity more aware of its multi-layered character and force us all to reflect on its ability to further social justice within our societies.

Autorentext
Brigitte Feuillet-Liger is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Rennes 1 (France), where she specializes in Family Law, Human Rights and Bioethics.She is a Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France, member of the Institut de l'Ouest: Droit et Europe (IODE, UMR CNRS 6262), and Chair of the International Academic Network for Bioethics.She is Doctor Honoris Causa of University of Louvain (Belgium) and a recipient of the French Legion d'Honneur. She has been awarded numerous prizes, (Award of Dissez le Penanrun of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques; Emile Girardeau Award of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences (Institute of France) for her distinguished academic career, and has published extensively in the field of Law, Bioethics and Religion.  Kristina Orfali, Ph.D., a graduate from the École Normale Supérieure (Paris), the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (France) is Professor of Bioethics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. She has worked on patient's hospital experiences in a cross-cultural perspective, on clinician and family decision making in neonatal intensive care units and on bioethics in France and Europe. She has published several books and articles in Social Science and Medicine, The Journal of Clinical Ethics, Perspectives in Medicine and Biology, Sociology of Health and Illness, American Journal of Bioethics etc.  She has a particular interest in empirical cross-cultural studies and comparative research in the field of bioethics. Before joining Columbia, Kristina Orfali has been an Assistant Professor in Medicine and Assistant Director at the MacLean Center for Clinical Ethics at the University of Chicago and Directeur de Recherches invitée at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France. As an ethicist she is a member of the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York ethics committee and a clinical ethicist consultant in paediatrics.

Inhalt
Part I: The Realitie(s) of Human Dignity in Europe.- Chapter 1. The Concept of Human Dignity in Belgian Law: a Variety of Approaches (Geneviève Schamps).- Chapter 2.The Jurisprudential Reality(-ies) of the Principle of Human Dignity in France: a Prevailing or An Authoritative Principle? (Francis Kernaleguen).- Chapter 3. The Principle of Dignity in Germany and Its 'Irradiating' Effect with Regard to Biomedicine (Francoise Furkel).- Chapter 4. Applying the Overarching Principle of Human Dignity in Greek Law (Penelope Agallopoulou).- Chapter 5. The Concept of Human Dignity as the Foundation of Rights in the Hungarian Biomedical Law (Judit Sandor).- Chapter 6. Practical Reason and Enantiosemy of Human Dignity: the Reality of the Principle in Italy (Carlo Sotis).- Chapter 7. Human Dignity as a Fundamental Principle in Biomedicine: A Spanish Perspective (Verónica San Julian Puig).- Chapter 8. Human Dignity: Conceptual Unity and Plurality of Content in Swiss law (Dominique Manaï).- Chapter 9. Towards a Libertarian Application of Dignity in English Law: A Case Law Analysis (Thérèse Callus).- Chapter 10. The Principle of Dignity and the European Court of Human Rights (Jean-Pierre Marguénaud).- Part II: The Realitie(s) of Human Dignity in Africa.- Chapter 11. The Reality of the Human Dignity Principle in the Framework of the Egyptian Legal System (Hassan Abdelhamid).- Chapter 12. The Principle of Human Dignity in Tunisia: Between Political Recuperation and Low Practical Recognition (Amel Aouij-Mrad).- Part III: The Realitie(s) of Human Dignity in America.- Chapter 13. Human Dignity in Brazilian Law: A Founding Principle of Laws and Court Judgements (Maria-Claudia Crespo-Brauner).- Chapter 14. Dignity in Canadian law: A Popular but Ambiguous Notion (Dominique Goubau).- Chapter 15. Putting the Principle of Human Dignity to the Test: A 'Useless' Concept from An American Perspective? (Kristina Orfali).- Chapter 16. Human Dignity in the Case Law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Anderson Orestes Cavalcante Lobato).- Part IV: The Realitie(s) of Human Dignity in Asia.- Chapter 17. The Emergence of Human Dignity in China: from A Civil Right to A Constitutional Principle (Li Zhang).- Chapter 18. Ambivalence of the Relationships Between Dignity and Freedoms in Turkish Law (Saïbe Oktay-Özdemir).- Part V: Interdisciplinary Approaches.- Chapter 19. The Reality of the Principle of Human Dignity: A Critical Philosophical Approach (Gilbert Hottois).- Chapter 20.From Dignity to Responsibility (David Le Breton).- Chapter 21. Human Dignity: a Notion that Provides More Confusion Than Clarity (Ruwen Ogien).- Part VI: Looking Forward.- Chapter 22. The Case for a Limited Use of Dignity As A Legal Principle (Brigitte Feuillet).