Human dignity and the human personality: Developing an ideological basis for the constitutionalisation of the common law of personality

Abstract

This article examines the multi-faceted nature of human dignity as a constitutional value, together with its interplay with other constitutional values, to provide an ideological basis for the constitutional development of the common law of personality with reference to Kantian moral philosophy (and other intellectual traditions). This article argues that the interplay between the multi-faceted nature of human dignity and other constitutional values such as equality, freedom and ubuntu create a constitutional objective normative value system that gives rise to certain ideals (read as interpretative norms) in respect of the human dignity and the attendant development of the common law of personality. These ideals are the universal, individualistic and collectivist ideals of the aforementioned objective normative value system (as cogent variations of Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative as applied to the law of personality). These ideals considers the possibility of the human personality as a legal interest to promote constitutional imperatives related to the human image in the common law (as a universal ideal), the delineation of the unique characteristics of the human image (as an individualistic constitutional imperative), and the shared humanity and attendant solidarity contained in the human image (as a collectivist constitutional imperative).