Abstract
The concept of human dignity has many facets in the Slovak legal order. As will be presented in this analysis, which surveys the usage of the term in the Constitution, legislation, and case law, one can hardly speak of a unique or a sole meaning of this legal concept. Notwithstanding the detailed characteristics of human dignity in different settings and situations, the motto echoes the aim protected by dignity: the prohibition of treatment that debases the dignity of a person as a human being. The protection of dignity is therefore fixed to an image of men as human beings and their uniqueness in contrast to nonliving elements of nature or other living creatures. The biological status and the idea of man himself, however, do not suffice to assign human dignity. At the same time mankind is also a bearer of certain moral values. Morality, freedom, and equality together constitute the form and the content of human dignity of individuals in Slovakia. Legal norms referring to human dignity seem to have an intermediary or indirect role in protecting persons as human beings in a great variety of situations, especially in vulnerable ones, in which a person is more likely to be treated in a debasing way. Apart from the explicit reference to dignity in the lawmaking process on constitutional and legislation levels, there also exists an implicit meaning of the term created by the courts’ case law and legal academia, respectively. Moreover, dignity is an objective value and a subjective right in the Slovak legal order.
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Notes
- 1.
The inspiration of constituent fathers and mothers by the Art. 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is clear. It contains almost the identical wording.
- 2.
See the judgment of the Constitutional Court PL. ÚS 37/95, which stated that the payment for expropriation must be proportional to dignity of every man and the people in general.
- 3.
E.g., when performing independent jobs or when an individual becomes a subject to the powers of state institutions.
- 4.
See in particular the judgment of the Constitutional Court PL. ÚS 44/00.
- 5.
Before the Civil Code took effect (1 April 1964), personal honour, name, and human dignity had been exclusively protected by criminal and administrative law in the statute No. 108/1933 Coll. on the protection of honour.
- 6.
PL. ÚS 10/2011 from 28 November 2012.
- 7.
PL. ÚS 96/2011, 28 November 2012.
- 8.
“Everyone has the right to protection of health. Based on public insurance, citizens have the right to free health care and to the medical supplies under conditions laid down by law.”
- 9.
See, for example, the judgment of the District Court in Košice I from 17 March 2015 sp. zn. 38 C 50/2011; the judgment of the Regional Court in Košice from 28 June 2016 sp. zn. 6 Co 833/2014; the judgment of the Supreme Court from 25 May 2016 sp. zn. 9 Sžso 89/2014; the judgment of the Supreme Court from 30 June 2015 sp. zn. 1 Sžso 11/2014, etc.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to my colleague Kamil Baraník who read and commented on the earlier version and made some valuable comments that improved the quality of this paper.
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Ľalík, T. (2019). Human Dignity in Slovakia. In: Becchi, P., Mathis, K. (eds) Handbook of Human Dignity in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28082-0_37
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