The Inherent Human Dignity as the Foundation of Justice: Meaning and Some Justifications

Abstract

The author discusses inherent (innate) human dignity, which is the foundation of justice. He assumes that the innate, inviolable, non-transferable, and inalienable dignity, which is inherent to the human’s very essence, is the foundation of justice and its requirements, which demand to „give to each what is due to him” (suum cuique tribuere), to give to „each his own” or their due. The author aims to justify the meaning and importance of grounding justice in human reality– a being in itself and for itself: Always the end, never only the means. The discussions and analyses indicate, among other things, that this foundation determines the objective basis, unconventionality (non-contractability), unarbitability, non-relativism, and universality of justice. The author also emphasizes that grounding justice in inherent dignity is a departure from legalistic/legal justice (understood as compliance with the law of a state) and the positivist and formalistic paradigm of law and legal sciences that, though he thinks it is harmful, still dominates in the Polish legal culture. The author uses the method of general reflection and the analytical and axiological methods.