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123 José María Puyol Montero
José María Puyol Montero Coordinator
Coordinator
Human dignity and law. Studies on the dignity of human life
Human dignity and law. Studies on the dignity of human life
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On the 22nd of June 2018 a seminar organized by RCC Study Group ¨Studies on Life and Human Dignity¨ was held at Harvard Law School (Cambridge, Massachusetts). The seminar ‘New Challenges for Law: Human Dignity, Transhumanism and New Technologies’ gathered well-renowned professors from different fields of science from European and American universities. A second seminar was sheduled to take place at the same venue on June 23rd 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced the organizers to suspend the seminar at the last moment. The aim of both encounters was to analyze and study the concept of human dignity in life and at the end of life, and some of its manifestations and potential threats in today’s world. In the last decades, a spectacular development in the diverse fields of science, economy, trade and communications has taken place in society. These advances in human progress, as laudable as they may be, often do not effectively correspond to parallel recognition of every man and woman’s human dignity. In fact, in many cases, this progress results in a series of contradictions and possible dangers and challenges. This book brings together a selection of papers presented at those seminars regarding the big issue of human dignity and law.
HUMAN DIGNITY AND LAW. STUDIES ON THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN LIFE
COMITÉ CIENTÍFICO DE LA EDITORIAL TIRANT LO BLANCH María José Añón Roig
Javier de Lucas Martín
Ana Cañizares Laso
Víctor Moreno Catena
Catedrática de Filosofía del Derecho de la Universidad de Valencia Catedrática de Derecho Civil de la Universidad de Málaga
Jorge A. Cerdio Herrán
Catedrático de Teoría y Filosofía de Derecho Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
José Ramón Cossío Díaz
Ministro en retiro de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación y miembro de El Colegio Nacional
Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot Juez de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos Investigador del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM
Owen Fiss
Catedrático emérito de Teoría del Derecho de la Universidad de Yale (EEUU)
José Antonio García-Cruces González Catedrático de Derecho Mercantil de la UNED
Luis López Guerra
Catedrático de Derecho Constitucional de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Ángel M. López y López Catedrático de Derecho Civil de la Universidad de Sevilla
Marta Lorente Sariñena
Catedrática de Historia del Derecho de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Catedrático de Filosofía del Derecho y Filosofía Política de la Universidad de Valencia Catedrático de Derecho Procesal de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Francisco Muñoz Conde
Catedrático de Derecho Penal de la Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla
Angelika Nussberger
Catedrática de Derecho Constitucional e Internacional en la Universidad de Colonia (Alemania) Miembro de la Comisión de Venecia
Héctor Olasolo Alonso
Catedrático de Derecho Internacional de la Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) y Presidente del Instituto Ibero-Americano de La Haya (Holanda)
Luciano Parejo Alfonso
Catedrático de Derecho Administrativo de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Tomás Sala Franco
Catedrático de Derecho del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social de la Universidad de Valencia
Ignacio Sancho Gargallo
Magistrado de la Sala Primera (Civil) del Tribunal Supremo de España
Tomás S. Vives Antón
Catedrático de Derecho Penal de la Universidad de Valencia
Ruth Zimmerling
Catedrática de Ciencia Política de la Universidad de Mainz (Alemania)
Procedimiento de selección de originales, ver página web: www.tirant.net/index.php/editorial/procedimiento-de-seleccion-de-originales
HUMAN DIGNITY AND LAW. STUDIES ON THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN LIFE
JOSÉ MARÍA PUYOL MONTERO Coordination
tirant lo blanch Valencia, 2021
Copyright ® 2021 Todos los derechos reservados. Ni la totalidad ni parte de este libro puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningún procedimiento electrónico o mecánico, incluyendo fotocopia, grabación magnética, o cualquier almacenamiento de información y sistema de recuperación sin permiso escrito de los autores y del editor. En caso de erratas y actualizaciones, la Editorial Tirant lo Blanch publicará la pertinente corrección en la página web www.tirant.com.
Sponsors: Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University; Institute for Global Law and Policy (Harvard Law School); Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Policy Program; La Caixa Foundation; RCC Study Group ‘Studies on Life and Human Dignity’; Tirant lo Blanch Publisher.
© José María Puyol Montero (Coord.)
© TIRANT LO BLANCH EDITA: TIRANT LO BLANCH C/ Artes Gráficas, 14 - 46010 - Valencia TELFS.: 96/361 00 48 - 50 FAX: 96/369 41 51 Email:tlb@tirant.com www.tirant.com Librería virtual: www.tirant.es ISBN: 978-84-1378-817-3 MAQUETA: Tink Factoría de Color Si tiene alguna queja o sugerencia, envíenos un mail a: atencioncliente@tirant.com. En caso de no ser atendida su sugerencia, por favor, lea en www.tirant.net/index.php/empresa/politicas-deempresa nuestro procedimiento de quejas. Responsabilidad Social Corporativa: http://www.tirant.net/Docs/RSCTirant.pdf
AUTORES Guillermo F. Arquero Caballero Grzegorz J. Blicharz Carlos Espaliú Berdud María Luisa Gómez Jiménez Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier Javier Martínez-Torrón Federico de Montalvo Jääskeläinen Liviu Olteanu Maria do Céu Patrão Neves José María Puyol Montero Hugo S. Ramírez-García Francesc Torralba Luca Valera
Table of Contents PROLOGUE.............................................................................................................. 15 INTRODUCTION: HUMAN DIGNITY AND LAW................................................ 19 PERSONA: BEARER OF RIGHTS AND ANTHROPOLOGY FOR LAW Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier
I. LEGAL BACKGROUND OF THE CONCEPT OF PERSONA...................... 24 II. TWO CONTEXTS OF THE PRECEPT “EVERY LAW NEEDS TO BE CREATED FOR THE SAKE OF MEN”.......................................................... 26 III. HOMO AND PERSONA AS LEGACIES OF ROMAN CIVILIZATION......... 38 IV. A DISPUTE OVER THE ESSENCE OF MAN............................................... 48 V. INDIVIDUAL BEARER OF RIGHTS............................................................. 52 CONTEMPORARY THREATS TO HUMAN DIGNITY: ITS INTERFACES AND EROSION MarIa do Céu Patrão Neves
I. ETYMOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL CONCEPTUALIZATION OF HUMAN DIGNITY: ITS SOCIAL, ANTHROPOLOGICAL, ONTOLOGICAL, ETHICAL AND LEGAL DIMENSIONS.............................................. 56 II. HUMAN DIGNITY: AN AXIAL PRINCIPLE UNDER PERSISTENT THREAT.......................................................................................................... 58 III. EMERGING CHALLENGES TO HUMAN DIGNITY.................................. 61 IV. BIOTECHNOLOGIES AND THE ARTIFICIALIZATION OF THE HUMAN FROM THERAPEUTIC PURPOSES TO SOCIAL INTERESTS........ 62 1. Animal rights and biocentric egalitarianism from spiritual specificity to biological homogenization.................................................................. 70 2. The technological convergence and the production of humanoids from labor collaboration to social substitution....................................... 72 V. IN FAVOR OF HUMAN DIGNITY................................................................ 74 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................ 75 THE DIGNITY OF NATIVE AMERICANS AND AFRICAN SLAVES IN THE SPANISH CROWN FROM THE MORALISTS’ POINT OF VIEW (15TH TO 18TH CENTURIES) Guillermo F. Arquero Caballero
I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 77 II. ON THE DIGNITY OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS................................... 80 1. The right of Native Americans to their freedom and lands................... 80 2. The respect of Native Americans as mature people............................... 85
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III. ON THE DIGNITY OF SLAVES.................................................................... 90 1. The moral limits of enslaving................................................................... 90 2. The problem of African slavery............................................................... 92 3. The respect to human dignity of slaves................................................... 95 IV. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................. 99 DIGNIFIED WORK AND DEHUMANIZATION OF WORK. SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE PREHISTORY OF LABOR LAW José María Puyol Montero I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 101 II. ON THE CONCEPT OF WORK................................................................... 105 III. HUMAN DIGNITY, WORK AND FREEDOM............................................... 109 IV. HUMAN DIGNITY AT WORK....................................................................... 116 1. The recognition of human dignity.......................................................... 116 2. The process of dehumanization of labor................................................ 119 V. THE RECOGNITION OF THE FIRST SOCIAL RIGHTS........................... 121 VI. CONCLUSION............................................................................................... 129 HUMANS AS A SERVICE: ETHICS IN THE SHARING ECONOMY AND THE ANCIENT MODEL Grzegorz J. Blicharz
I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 134 II. DIGNITY OF MAN AND DIGNITY OF WORK: ENDANGERED BY LEGAL CATEGORIZATION?............................................................................ 136 III. OVERARCHING CONCEPTS OF OPUS – OPERAE AND THE MEANING OF HUMAN LABOR.............................................................................. 144 IV. HUMANS AS A SERVICE: FREEDMEN AND THE GIG ECONOMY........ 152 V. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................. 160 THE ENVIRONMENT AS A PUBLIC CONCERN: KEYNOTES ON ECOLOGICAL CITIZENSHIP Hugo S. Ramírez-García I. FOREWORD................................................................................................... 163 II. CITIZENSHIP TODAY: RESHAPING ITS MEANING AND PRACTICE.... 165 III. SUSTAINABLE CITIZENSHIP: A MATTER OF VULNERABILITY........... 167 IV. SUSTAINABLE CITIZENSHIP AND SUBSISTENCE PERSPECTIVE........ 170 V. FINAL REMARKS........................................................................................... 174
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DIGNITY AND THE PROJECTION OF THE RED QUEEN EFFECT IN HEALTHY EMERGENCY PUBLIC POLICIES DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS María Luisa Gómez Jiménez I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 176 II. LET’S NUDGE!.............................................................................................. 177 III. SEARCHING FOR RED LINES..................................................................... 178 IV. AI AND PUBLIC LAW: WHERE IS FEASIBLE IS ALSO LEGITIMATE? DAAD, AUTOMATIC DECISION PROCESS, IN THE ACTUAL REGULATION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE........................... 180 1. Approaching a “critical” definition......................................................... 180 2. Regulating Artificial Intelligence: Nudging Robots?.............................. 183 3. The actors and the policymakers: the liability of AI............................... 184 V. FROM A PHYSICAL TO A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION OF THE RESILIENCE INTO A SOCIO-POLITICAL DEBATE: IS THERE LEGAL RESILIENCE?................................................................................................. 185 VI. THE RED QUEEN EFFECT IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, AFTER THE TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY: AN APPROACH............................... 190 VII. A REFLECTION, AND A PROPOSAL ON THE COVID-19 CRISIS AND ITS IMPACT ON HUMAN DIGNITY REGARDING HEALTH AND HOUSING POLICIES.................................................................................... 191 VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................ 193 HUMAN DIGNITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE. MAY WE DWELL (IN) THE VIRTUAL? Luca Valera
I. THE REASONS WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO RETHINK THE PROBLEM OF VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS.................................................................. 198 II. TWO PRELIMINARY CLARIFICATIONS: “VIRTUAL” AND “VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT”........................................................................................... 199 III. BODY, VIRTUAL BODY, AND INTER-ACTION........................................... 203 IV. DWELLING (IN) TECHNOLOGICAL (VIRTUAL) ENVIRONMENTS.... 207 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON HUMAN DIGNITY AND THE LEGAL APPROACH DURING PERIOD OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC, VIOLENCE AND THE ABUSE OF POWER THAT AFFECTS VULNERABLE PEOPLE. BASED ON EXCHANGES OF LETTERS WITH THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, NOTING THE TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES Liviu Olteanu
I. INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS......................................................... 214 1. Introduction.............................................................................................. 214 2. Questions Directed towards the High Officers of the United Nations and the European Commission............................................................... 215 II. HUMAN DIGNITY IN PRESENT TIMES – AN UNSOLVED WORLDWIDE PROBLEM........................................................................................... 216
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1. COVID-19, Global Leadership and its Relationship with Human Dignity. 216 2. COVID-19 and the “Scapegoats” Issue: A Populist Approach of the “New Normal”........................................................................................... 218 3. COVID-19 and Famine Affecting Lives of the Most Vulnerable: Children, Women, Refugees, Migrants, Minorities................................................. 220 4. COVID-19, Used as a Pretext for Emergency Laws and Repressive Measures.................................................................................................... 221 5. COVID-19 Pandemic, Used as an Opportunity for a New Reset of Global Governance and a New World Order...................................................... 221 III. A SELECTION OF ANSWERS ON THE QUESTION OF HUMAN DIGNITY FOR ALL PEOPLE AND FOR THE VULNERABLE.......................... 222 1. The UNITED NATIONS’ Response to COVID-19 and Human Dignity.... 223 2. The EUROPEAN UNION Response on Religious Freedom and COVID-19 Crisis.............................................................................................. 225 3. COVID-19, Surveillance and Human Dignity......................................... 226 4. Religious Minorities, Hate Speech and COVID-19................................. 228 5. Refugees, Migrants and COVID-19.......................................................... 230 6. Human Rights Activists, Political Opponents and COVID-19............... 231 7. Doctors and Health Workers.................................................................... 232 IV. HOW TO FOSTER HUMAN DIGNITY AND CONFRONT PANDEMICS, VIOLENCE AND THE ABUSE OF POWER................................................. 233 1. Recognizing That All People Have Inherent Dignity, Equal and Inalienable Rights.......................................................................................... 233 2. Condemnation of Abuses of Law-Enforcement, Power and Violence.. 234 3. Disapproving of Double Standards and Making a Difference for the Marginalized and Vulnerable................................................................... 234 4. Two Unforgettable History Lessons That Are Complementary: (1) Accepting Diversity & (2) Rejecting Uniformity..................................... 235 5. Raising Our Voices Against Injustices, Everywhere and at All Times Refusing to Remain Neutral.................................................................... 236 6. Let’s Express Our Support and Find the Means to Foster Human Dignity and Law........................................................................................ 237 V. CONCLUSION............................................................................................... 238 1. Will the Future Be Drawn Around “Power” or Dignity?......................... 238 2. In Search of Global Leadership That Respects the Freedom of Choice of Every Human Being............................................................................. 238 3. Dignity Must Remain at the Heart of Law and Global Policy................ 239 4. Final Remarks........................................................................................... 240 THE EU NAVAL OPERATION AGAINST HUMAN SMUGLERS AND TRAFICKERS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Carlos Espaliú Berdud I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 242 II. RESULTS OF OPERATION SOPHIA............................................................ 250 III. THE ROLE OF THE UN IN THE SHIPWRECH OF OPERATION SOPHIA................................................................................................................ 254
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IV. ITALY’S ROLE IN THE DRIFT AND SHIPWRECK OF OPERATION SOPHIA................................................................................................................ 257 V. THE ROLE OF THE LIBYAN COAST GUARD IN THE SHIPWRECK OF THE EU NAVAL OPERATION...................................................................... 263 VI. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................. 266 WE CAN READ YOUR MIND: FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND LAW IN THE AGE OF NEUROTECHNOLOGY Federico de Montalvo Jääskeläinen I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 269 II. LAW FOR NEUROSCIENCES AND NEUROSCIENCE OF LAW............... 272 III. NEUROSCIENCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS: THE IMPACT OF NEUROSCIENCE DEVELOPMENT IN THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT..................................................................................................... 276 IV. FREEDOM OF THOUGHT VS. COGNITIVE LIBERTY. ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THE SAME LIBERTY?................................................... 282 V. NEUROSCIENCE AND LAW: IS IT POSSIBLE TO ACCEPT A LEGAL SYSTEM WITHOUT FREE WILL?................................................................ 284 DEATH WITH DIGNITY. A POLISEMIC APPROACH Dr. Francesc Torralba I. PREFACE......................................................................................................... 289 II. DYING WITH DIGNITY IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.............. 290 III. HERMENEUTICS.......................................................................................... 294 1. First meaning............................................................................................ 295 2. Second meaning....................................................................................... 295 3. Third meaning.......................................................................................... 296 4. Forth meaning.......................................................................................... 297 5. Fifth meaning............................................................................................ 297 6. Sixth meaning........................................................................................... 297 7. Seventh meaning...................................................................................... 298 8. Eight meaning........................................................................................... 298 IV. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................. 299 RCC STUDY GROUP “STUDIES ON LIFE AND HUMAN DIGNITY”.............. 301
Prologue In the legal realm, human dignity is expressed in the form of recognition and protection of human rights-those rights that constitute the inalienable patrimony of every human being. Most of us who work in the area of human rights, either from a theoretical or practical perspective, are often looked at with a combination of sympathy, pity, and scepticism. Some people think that we are naïf, that we devote our life to a lost cause, and that we should be depressed when reading the press every day and realize, once again, how bad the situation of human rights is around the world. Nothing is more distant from reality. People working on human rights —and this applies to scholars as well as to practitioners, public servants, or activists— are perfectly aware that respect for human rights is never going to be perfect, for the very reason that human beings are imperfect, frail, fallible and frequently inclined to do evil things to other human beings. Trying to make a perfect world is not our battle. If it were, we would certainly have good reasons to be depressed and experience a deep and permanent sense of failure. Our real goal is to contribute our grain of sand to improve the level of respect of human rights, being conscious that this will always be a work in progress. We have to pursue the ideal knowing that we cannot reach it. Unlike physical problems, social problems never are —or can be— completely solved. We just either make progress or go backwards. Once we accept it, everything becomes easier and clearer. We have to keep trying, because the alternative —surrender— would pave the way for a gradual dehumanization. As good hikers, we acknowledge that the actual destination is the journey. Professor José María Puyol, who made me the honour of asking me to write this prologue, knows very well all of the above and puts his best efforts to contribute to that cause. Indeed, being a legal historian by profession, he tries to use his historical expertise at the service of building a better future in the environment that is within his reach —the scholarly world—. We have been colleagues at the Faculty of Law of Complutense University for many years and I have witnessed his unbreakable enthusiasm and intense dedication to academic life. This book is an expression of it. If I am not wrong, this is the third episode —and likely not the last one— of an intellectual and editorial commitment that begun some years ago and pivots around a series of seminars
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regularly organized by the Study Group “Studies on Life and Human Dignity” at the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University. José María Puyol is co-director of that Study Group, together with Professor Carol Steiker, of Harvard Law School. They are sponsored by a number of institutions, among them the Institute for Global Law and Policy and the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard University; and the foundations Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno y La Caixa, in Spain. Those seminars gather a reduced group of scholars from universities around the world to discuss topics relating to human dignity from a variety of perspectives. Jurists normally prevail in numbers, but participants have also included philosophers, physicians and historians. Two books have already been published before this one, in 2017 and 2020, by Tirant lo Blanch, thus honouring its reputation for supporting legal studies in the area of human rights. This third book collects some of the contributions to the seminar held at Harvard Law School in June 2019 and the seminar that should have been held in June 2020, which was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certainly, intellectual exchanges that occur in in-person academic meetings have a richness that can never be entirely transferred to publications or to the on-line version of those meetings. But it is fitting to save what was possible of the cancelled seminar of 2020 and to make it available to the scholarly community in a published version. Its twelve chapters are written from diverse perspectives and touch on a great variety of themes. Some of them are classical deep and permanent topics of human rights and human dignity, others approach particular historical subjects from which lessons must be learned, and others deal with particular up-to-date issue. The key concepts concerning human dignity are always in the background, but the authors focus on contemporary problems. The legal perspective is predominant but there are others. And not everything in the content corresponds to the stereotypes of traditional academic parameters, for some of the chapters centre on practical action of international relations and organizations. It is revealing that José María Puyol is the only author of Complutense University in this book. This is clear testimony that the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University is an open institution. It is a forum that connects, at Harvard, universities not only from Spain but from the entire
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Spanish-speaking world —and it is gradually extending to other European universities—. This book is a very valuable contribution to studies on human dignity. In the last years we have seen initiatives on human dignity proliferate all over the world. Some of them are academic, and some of the academic ones have also the character of an intellectual manifesto, aimed at influencing social and political life1. We cannot have enough of them. Every effort counts in this universal commitment. This has always been true but especially today. All over the world, societies become increasingly polarized in issues that are essential for social cohesion and harmony. Human rights, which are indeed supposed to provide social cohesion, are often used as weapons in the political debate. They are flagged as symbols to discredit the political or ideological adversary, thus transforming them into a divisive force and subverting their genuine meaning and purpose. More and more, there are politicians, activists, and also scholars who affirm themselves —implicitly or explicitly— as having the monopoly of the “orthodox” interpretation of human rights. This is one of the factors that has led to a hyper-judicialization of social tensions, and human rights are continuously invoked in courts to win a case, whatever the cost. We need to find new ways to approach those social conflicts. Ways that do not involve winning a case in court against someone who holds a view of human rights that is different from ours. Ways that are not a zero-sum game. Ways that do not gradually divide citizens into winners or losers, depending on which side of the interpretation of human right they are. In other words, we need to rebuild a culture of respect for those who think and live differently. And to that purpose, retrieving and rediscovering the notion of human dignity seems to be the crucial factor. Studies that go in that direction are of the utmost significance and should be encouraged. Professor Puyol’ s initiative is one of them and is very welcome. Javier Martínez-Torrón Freiburg im Breisgau, December 2020
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See, for instance, the Punta del Este Declaration on “Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere”: https://www.dignityforeveryone.org.
Introduction: Human Dignity and Law On June 21, 2019 took place at Harvard Law School (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) the International Seminar “New Challenges for Law: Genetic Editing, Human Ecology, and Human Dignity, in Life And Death”, organized by the RCC Study Group “Studies on Life and Human Dignity”, of the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard1. As in previous editions, that seminar brought together at Harvard University a select group of professors from twelve renowned European and American universities, invited to present their views and analyze together some of the great contemporary challenges for law and human dignity, from a multidisciplinary perspective2. The seminar was scheduled to be followed by another one in June 2020, entitled “New Challenges for Law: Human Dignity, Vulnerability and Neuroscience”, intended to continue the task of reflection initiated the previous year. This seminar was to be organized by “RCC Studies on Life and Human Dignity” and take place and Harvard Law School as well. The sad circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing the closing of Harvard University, prevented at last the celebration of that seminar. The aim of both seminars was to contribute new ideas to the contemporary debate on respect for human dignity in different fields of society, an issue that has received particular attention from the academic world
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El RCC Study Group “Studies on Life and Human Dignity” is a study group linked to Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University. See the web page http://rcc.harvard.edu/death-penalty-0. These professors took part in the 2019 seminar: Prof. Rosario Isasi (University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, USA); Prof. Maureen Condic (University of Utah, School of Medicine, USA); Prof. Vicente Bellver Capella (University of Valencia, School of Law, Spain); Prof. Hugo-Saúl Ramírez García (Panamerican University, School of Law, Ciudad de México); Prof. Luca Valera (Pontificial Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, School of Philosophy); Prof. Ronald Sandler (Northeastern University, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, director of the Ethics Institute, Boston, USA); Prof. María-Luisa Gómez Jiménez (Málaga University, School of Law, Spain); Prof. Dalibor Cepulo (University of Zagreb, School of Law, Croatia); Prof. Carlos Espaliú Berdud (general secretary of Nebrija University, School of Law, Madrid, Spain); Prof. Francesc Torralba (Ramon Llull University, School of Philosophy, Barcelona, Spain); Prof. José-María Puyol Montero (Complutense University of Madrid, School of Law, Spain); Prof. José-Miguel Serrano Ruiz-Calderón (Complutense University of Madrid, School of Law, Spain); Prof. Jane Driver (Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, USA). The director and the secretary of both seminars were the Professors José-María Puyol Montero and María-Luisa Gómez Jiménez.
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Introduction: Human Dignity and Law
in recent years. The presence of professors from different countries and scientific specialties at Harvard was a good opportunity to analyze these problems from different approaches and perspectives. The topics of study proposed for discussion in the first seminars were genetic editing and the new biotechnological paradigm, various approaches to human ecology and other aspects of respect for human dignity in the development of life and at the end of life. Moreover, in the 2019 seminar a number of interesting contributions and reflections were made on the value of every human being in various facets of life: regarding new forms of organization of cities, on the occasion of international conflicts and crises, on the world of work, on illness or the end of life. Here again, other topics analyzed were the ability to dipose of one´s existence as well as over the lives of others, questions that are highly topical in the society of well-being and technological development. From a historical-legal perspective, there was no lack of reference to the death penalty and its history, an issue that is always of great relevance in the United States. The themes of dignified life and death with dignity have always been present in these seminars, as well as the study of human dignity in public policies and in private life. As a result of the papers presented and the debates generated, the speakers have proposed thought-provoking ideas, many of which are gathered in these pages. In the presentations of the second seminar the professors propose paying special attention to some threats to human dignity in the field of scientific research, in the neurosciences, in the digital world or in the field of the environment. The speakers analyze the ethical limits that human behavior should have in these fields and how all this can affect the respect for human dignity and the fundamental rights of the person. The great theme of human dignity and its protection by law is always current. As mentioned in some of the presentations here, human dignity is the foundation of all other values and is an expression of the privileged status of every human being. “It is everyone’s mission, and particularly that of the university, to promote equal respect and consideration for any man or woman, regardless of place of birth, nationality, race, language, creed, or thought. We are aware that the recognition of the freedom of each person is empty of content if there is no effective respect for each person and what each represents. With the development of the modern world advancing at a fast pace, we must not allow scientific and technological advances or the development of communications to sometimes blur what man really is. It seems vital to recognize the dignity of every human being if we are to continue to live in a civilized world. For this reason, and in order to protect