Abstract for the Kant in Asia International Conference

at Hong Kong Baptist University

20-23 May 2009

Bernhard Jakl, “Human Dignity and Innate Right to Freedom in National and International Law”

”Human dignity“ (Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals) and ”innate right to freedom“ (Kant, Doctrine of Right) are two key concepts for a kantian understandig of human personhood. I will analyse the relation between human dignity and the innate right to freedom. The analysis is focused on the question, whether according to Kant’s practical philosophy a universal right is a subjective right to freedom for every single person, a subjective moral idea of dignity or just a general declamation of dignity for the human genus with mere indirect consequences for the individual. I will argue, that one has to refer to the innate right to freedom as the universal right, if one wants to interpret human dignity in national and international law from a Kantian point of view.

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