Trucanini's Stare

Reconsidering Dignity in Theory and Practice

Susan Marks (London School of Economics and Political Science)

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English

Cambridge University Press
29 May 2025

Law & society

Series: Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures

A central concept in international human rights law and many national constitutions is human dignity. Departing from established approaches to dignity in philosophy and legal theory, Susan Marks takes dignity in everyday life ('dignified care', 'dignity in the workplace', etc.) as a starting point for reconsidering the concept's history and significance. The result is a highly original work which gives particular attention to colonial and post-colonial engagements with dignity, and emphasises the character of human dignity as not just an idea or abstract value, but also a lived experience that cannot be understood without reference to social structures and the inequalities and hierarchies they reproduce. If dignity is an attribute which all human beings possess purely by virtue of being human, Marks shows that it is also an element within the systemic operations of privilege and power.

By: Susan Marks (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009543248
ISBN 10: 1009543245
Series: Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures
Pages: 197
Publication Date: 29 May 2025
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Introduction; 2. The idea of Human dignity; 3. Regarding Trucanini's dignity; 4. Ghandi and the 'Undignified' Loincloth; 5. Dignity and Indignity in the South African toilet wars; 6. Conclusion: Dignity and its outsiders.

Susan Marks is a Professor in the School of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, focusing on international law and human rights. She is the author of publications that include The Riddle of All Constitutions, International Human Rights Lexicon (co-written with Andrew Clapham, 2005) and A False Tree of Liberty (2019), and edited International Law on the Left (2008).