Human Dignity and Autonomy

1 Human dignity leads a double life. On the one hand, the concept forms the unifying idea of the modern constitutional approach to rights protection. On the other, the shortcomings of the leading theories of human dignity generate increasing scepticism about the concept. Human dignity has been called a ‘vacuous concept’ bereft of any boundaries (Bagaric and Allan 269); a subjective idea that varies ‘radically with the time, place, and beholder’ (Pinker); an indistinct idea that ‘masks a great deal of disagreement and sheer confusion’ (Rosen 67); and an ‘impossibly...