Title: The interplay of the legal and the moral dimension of human rights for the implementation of human rights

Authors: Peter G. Kirchschlaeger

Addresses: Faculty of Theology, University of Lucerne, Frohburgstrasse 3, Postfach 4466, CH-6002 Lucerne, Switzerland

Abstract: This article addresses human rights in their complexity by dealing with the legal dimension of human rights and the moral dimension of human rights. The discussion of both dimensions and their specific contributions to the implementation of human rights - e.g., the element of enforcement by the legal dimension of human rights or the aspect of justifying the universality of human rights through the moral dimension - and their limits (e.g., the risk of particularity of legal human rights or the 'weakness' of moral human rights) lays the ground for the deliberation of the relation between them. Based on this assessment and deepened understanding of both dimensions, their interplay for the implementation of human rights is explored.

Keywords: human rights implementation; legal dimension; moral dimension; universality; minimum standards; justification; individual; egalitarian; fundamental; categorical; enforceable; law; morality; human rights.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2016.076056

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2016 Vol.4 No.1, pp.31 - 44

Received: 21 Dec 2015
Accepted: 21 Dec 2015

Published online: 22 Apr 2016 *

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