Concept of human becoming in ethics and law

The following contribution deals with recent literature on the problem of defining human dignity. This includes some volumes of essays, but also monographs from philosophy and philosophy of law. It discusses the most important currents on this question and deals with some particularly important aspects such as whether dignity represents a status or a value, or how ethical and legal concepts of dignity relate to each other. It also tries to determine the relationship between the necessary and the << contingent >> concept of dignity (viz. humiliation approach).