Menschenwürde und Verhältnismäßigkeit

In the debate over the normative structure of human dignity, two conceptions stand in opposition, an absolute and a relative conception. According to the absolute conception, the guarantee of human dignity counts as a norm that takes precedence over all other norms in all cases. This implies that balancing is precluded. For this reason, the absolute conception is incompatible with proportionality analysis. The relative conception, by contrast, says that the question of whether human dignity is violated is a question of proportionality. With this, the relative conception is not only compatible with proportionality analysis, it presupposes it. My thesis is that the relative conception is correct but that there exist some features of human dignity that move in the direction of absoluteness. The basis of my argument is principles theory.