Dignity as a Constitutional Value in Hong Kong: Toward a Contextual Approach?

Abstract

This chapter considers the judiciary’s reliance on human dignity as a constitutional value in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. The Hong Kong courts have invoked dignity in several cases involving a limited number of rights. While dignity has helped expand the scope of constitutional rights in some, it has functioned more restrictively in others. An examination of this jurisprudence allows for a reflection on debates about the role of dignity in comparative constitutional law more generally. Commentators have queried whether such a vague and imprecise term has any substantive meaning and whether it should be abandoned altogether. The chapter concludes that attention to context can mitigate concerns about dignity’s indeterminacy and contribute to its development as a holistic constitutional value. The relevant context is both universal and local. It includes dignity’s position as a broad-based foundational principle in international human rights law across all categories of civil political, economic, social and cultural rights. It also depends on domestic factors such as a jurisdiction’s constitutional framework and empirical realities that impact the realisation of dignity in any given setting. Such an approach is therefore characterised by both breadth and depth and enhances dignity’s potential to address a range of issues.