The Dignity of Legal Subjects

The dignitary account of the rule of law proposes that values of human dignity and agency are appropriately recognised through legal rules and institutions that create opportunities for legal subjects to engage in deliberation and the exercise of practical reason. In a collection of essays published over a period of almost two decades, Thoughtfulness and the Rule of Law, Jeremy Waldron offers a comprehensive account of the grounds and institutional implications of taking dignity so understood as a core rule-of-law desideratum. The ensuing account is novel, stimulating and distinct. There is, however, a chasm between the platforms identified by Waldron and his ambition of advancing dignity. Further, a dignity norm cannot supply a plausible evaluative benchmark under all (or most) plausible circumstances. Its domain might in consequence be more circumscribed than Waldron intimates.