Human Dignity in Kosovo

Abstract

This chapter explores and examines the presence and potential meaning and status of human dignity in the domestic legal order of Kosovo. Kosovo’s Constitution, promulgated in 2008, is the newest on the European continent. The content and structure of Kosovo’s Constitution were naturally shaped by its past, formed by a state of conflict and further non-consensual bloody dissolution of the remainder of the former Yugoslav federation, superseded by an interim United Nations (UN)-led territorial administration. Its core values have thus emerged from a violent and totalitarian past, followed by the establishment by the UN of a new interim legal regime. As is emerging as a trend among constitutions arising from dictatorships and other forms of undemocratic regimes in the post-World War II era, the Constitution of Kosovo is among those constitutional instruments that contain an explicit provision protecting human. However, with none of the cases invoking violations of human dignity having been found admissible by the Constitutional Court and, thus, absent any operational judicial meaning, it is too early to arrive at any conclusions regarding any context-specific meaning of human dignity in Kosovo as the concept is yet to be interpreted by courts.