Christianity, human dignity and due process

Abstract

Human dignity and due process are often considered the foundations of fairness in the modern criminal justice system. This chapter examines the roots of both concepts. The use of the phrase “human dignity” by Cicero, Aquinas and Kant is followed by tracking its use in France and America in the eighteenth century to proclaim the equality of all. The limits that the Roman Catholic Church drew around equality in its social doctrine is noted followed by looking at the current place the idea holds in international treaties, local constitutions and the English criminal justice system. Due process is often said to be rooted in Magna Carta. Its subsequent development in both Church and State is reviewed. The place English common lawyers played historically in rescuing the criminal process from the excesses of the civil law practices in both Church and State is followed by the conclusion that English criminal justice practitioners see rights to fair procedures arising neither from the concept of human dignity nor from a developed understanding of due process, but from various conventions and protocols that are and were “bred in the bone of the common law”.