Human Dignity in Greece

Abstract

The paper discusses the place of human dignity in Greek constitutional order. In Greece, human dignity was introduced for the first time in the Constitution of 1975, following the fall of the Colonel’s dictatorship. The impact of human dignity on Greece’s strongly positivist legal tradition is presented with emphasis on the debate triggered among legal scholars and in case law over the legal nature of human dignity. Questions such as whether human dignity is an objective principle or an individual right, a legal absolute or a fundamental value subject nevertheless to balancing with other values, etc. have been central in this regard. Special attention is paid to the place of human dignity in legal reasoning. The paper highlights the field of offences to personality as the privileged one, where a paternalistic conception of human dignity instilled in public morals clashes with the proper role of human dignity, i.e., to embed a more comprehensive account of personal autonomy, enhancing pluralism and respecting personal choices by individuals in shaping their own life. Finally, the scope of human dignity in the various branches of law is critically discussed, offering an overview of its broad impact in Greek legal order. The underlying question in the analysis is whether there is a deeper theory of human dignity, which can avoid ad hoc balancing and legal casuistry, offering greater structure and coherence in dignitarian constitutionalism.