A new area of law burgeoning across the globe, including the United States, Dignity Law addresses every important aspect of the human experience, revealing how the law reflects and embraces the equal and inalienable worth of every human being. This engaging conversation with the Hon. Judge Bernice B. Donald of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Professors Erin Daly and James R. May, celebrates the publication of the first casebook on Dignity Law and a companion book that provides an Advanced Introduction of Human Dignity and Law. Through an examination of global jurisprudence and constitutionalism, the authors reveal a strong overlapping consensus surrounding the meaning of human dignity as a legal right and a fundamental value of nations large and small, and how this global jurisprudence is redefining the relationship between individuals and the state.
January 14, 2021 Book Discussion
The Individual and the State: A Conversation on Dignity and the Law
Panelists
- Erin Daly, Professor of Law, Delaware Law School; Executive Director, Dignity Rights International
- James R. May, Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Founder, Dignity Rights Project, Delaware Law School; Co-Founder, Environmental Rights Institute, Delaware Law School
Moderator
- The Honorable Bernice B. Donald, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Joint Sponsor: ABA Center for Human Rights
Resources
Transcript: The Individual and the State: A Conversation on Dignity and the Law
Daly and May, Dignity Law: Global Recognition, Cases, and Perspectives, also available here
Human dignity recognizes the equal worth of every member of the human family, regardless of gender, race, social or political status, talents, merit, or any other differentiator. But it is also a right that can be claimed, like liberty, equality, shelter, or free speech. It is now recognized in more than 160 constitutions around the world. Increasingly, courts from all legal and cultural traditions are recognizing the right to dignity and applying it against governments and others to ensure that the dignity of all is respected. This unique casebook provides an introduction to the emergent and dynamic law of human dignity, showcasing how the value of human dignity is permeating all areas of law, how the right to have one's dignity respected is shaping the development of the law, how dignity rights are embodied constitutionally around the globe. This book includes cases and secondary materials to illustrate the diversity and scope of dignity law, with units on dignity and identity; living with dignity; dignity and vulnerability; and participatory dignity, along with an overview that maps dignity law, and an introductory unit on the study of dignity law, and sample constitutional texts.
May and Daly, Advanced Introduction to Human Dignity and Law
This thought-provoking introduction provides an incisive overview of dignity law, a field of law emerging in every region of the globe that touches all significant aspects of the human experience. Through an examination of the burgeoning case law in this area, James R. May and Erin Daly reveal a strong overlapping consensus surrounding the meaning of human dignity as a legal right and a fundamental value of nations large and small, and how this global jurisprudence is redefining the relationship between individuals and the state.
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