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Human dignity in Norway

Human dignity in Norway
Human dignity in Norway
Historically, Norwegian jurisprudence has been characterized by a strong legal positivist approach. Some scholars have argued that this has amounted to a rejection of anything that could not be positively verified, including notions of human rights, duties, and values. It is perhaps unsurprising then that Norwegian law, both legislation and case law, has historically made only very few references to the notion of human dignity. Human dignity is a concept that plays a much more limited role in Norwegian judicial reasoning than it does in other European countries. This animosity to rights discourse and value-based reasoning is dissipating, however, and this change is most evident in the recent 2014 amendments to the Norwegian Constitution. Among other significant changes, the Norwegian Constitution now includes a single reference to human dignity in relation to the rights of children in Article 104. This may mean that the concept of human dignity will come to play a much more significant role in Norwegian law in the coming years.
human dignity, Norway, constitutional law
683-696
Springer
Townsend, Dina
526ee2bc-7f3d-4a01-9d21-358a8999e364
Becchi, Paolo
Mathis, Klaus
Townsend, Dina
526ee2bc-7f3d-4a01-9d21-358a8999e364
Becchi, Paolo
Mathis, Klaus

Townsend, Dina (2019) Human dignity in Norway. In, Becchi, Paolo and Mathis, Klaus (eds.) Handbook of Human Dignity in Europe. Springer, pp. 683-696. (doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28082-0_31).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

Historically, Norwegian jurisprudence has been characterized by a strong legal positivist approach. Some scholars have argued that this has amounted to a rejection of anything that could not be positively verified, including notions of human rights, duties, and values. It is perhaps unsurprising then that Norwegian law, both legislation and case law, has historically made only very few references to the notion of human dignity. Human dignity is a concept that plays a much more limited role in Norwegian judicial reasoning than it does in other European countries. This animosity to rights discourse and value-based reasoning is dissipating, however, and this change is most evident in the recent 2014 amendments to the Norwegian Constitution. Among other significant changes, the Norwegian Constitution now includes a single reference to human dignity in relation to the rights of children in Article 104. This may mean that the concept of human dignity will come to play a much more significant role in Norwegian law in the coming years.

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More information

Published date: 25 April 2019
Keywords: human dignity, Norway, constitutional law

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 476500
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476500
PURE UUID: ad38aa87-7020-45e9-883c-6008e4639c50
ORCID for Dina Townsend: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6531-8066

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Date deposited: 04 May 2023 17:00
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:12

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Contributors

Author: Dina Townsend ORCID iD
Editor: Paolo Becchi
Editor: Klaus Mathis

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