MacFadyen Lecture 2023: Human dignity – a purpose in perpetuity

Justice Sikri

Justice Arjan Sikri, who now serves as an international judge at the Singapore International Commercial Court, will speak about human dignity as an aspect of the law.

Human dignity is now a central feature of almost all modern constitutions and international documents. In this lecture, Justice Sikri explores the three models of dignity: theological, philosophical and constitutional. As a constitutional value, human dignity involves a person’s free will, autonomy, and their ability to write a life story within time and space.

As a constitutional right, he shows how the fulcrum of all human rights lies in human dignity and the way that constitutional courts of various nation states have carved out multiple facets of rights, utilising the concept of dignity. Here his analysis is augmented by examples of comparative judicial pronouncements.

Justice Sikri explores how human dignity can give full expression to the process of world peace. With these perspectives in mind, he calls human dignity a purpose in perpetuity.

The MacFadyen Lecture will be held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 23 March – register here.