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Human Dignity in Luxembourg

  • Living reference work entry
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Handbook of Human Dignity in Europe

Abstract

Luxembourg’s current Constitution does not refer to Human Dignity but several Acts of Parliament do so, without providing any comprehensive definition. This lacuna is partially filled with Luxembourg’s strong commitment to European and International law. Two of the main characteristics of Luxembourg’s legal order: its attachment to monism and pragmatism show up in this regard. The Grand Duchy is not only a contracting party to numerous international treaties that guarantee the respect for Human Dignity; its Representatives have always strongly advocated the need to protect Human Dig nity worldwide. Domestic authorities, when applying EU law, need to grant the protection of Human Dignity as it is enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is up to the national judges to determine the content of Human Dignity on a case by case basis.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “L’Etat garantit les droits naturels de la personne humaine et de la famille.” In Luxembourg the official legal language is French. All translations of legal sources or secondary literature from French to English have been realized by the authors.

  2. 2.

    This analysis is based on research conducted in April 2016 on the database of the CJEU (curia.eu), using ‘human dignity’ as a criterion in the text and the Charter of Fundamental Rights as subject matter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance, University of Luxembourg, 4, rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Jörg Gerkrath & Maria Pichou

Authors
  1. Jörg Gerkrath
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  2. Maria Pichou
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Correspondence to Jörg Gerkrath .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Paolo Becchi

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Klaus Mathis

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Gerkrath, J., Pichou, M. (2017). Human Dignity in Luxembourg. In: Becchi, P., Mathis, K. (eds) Handbook of Human Dignity in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27830-8_25-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27830-8_25-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27830-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27830-8

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