Abstract

This article addresses the correctness of Samuel Moyn’s contention that the inclusion of ‘dignity’ in the Irish Constitution of 1937 reflects a particularistic, sectarian and conservative Catholic viewpoint, rather than (as some other scholars do) seeing the inclusion of ‘dignity’ as the first tentative step towards the instantiation of a universalistic, liberal human rights ethic into the Irish Constitution. For Moyn, ‘dignity’s’ sectarian, political origins in Ireland add weight to his sceptical approach to human rights more generally, given the extent to which human dignity is now seen as underpinning the justification of human rights. In arguing against Moyn’s conclusions, the article provides a detailed re-examination, based on archival research, of the drafting of the Preamble to the Irish Constitution in which the term ‘dignity’ is located, situating it in the intellectual changes in political Catholicism and Irish nationalism at that time. In particular, the article examines for the first time to what extent insights can be gleaned from the contemporaneous translation of ‘dignity’ into the Irish language version of the Constitution, and the significance of the choice of ‘uaisleacht’ in the Irish text. Drawing from this, the article identifies the various different influences that appear to have contributed to the use and meaning of dignity in the Preamble, before returning to consider how far Moyn’s assessments are correct in light of the re-examination of the drafting history.

中文翻译：

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“人的尊严”来自何处？起草《爱尔兰宪法》序言

摘要

本文论述了塞缪尔·摩恩（Samuel Moyn）的论点的正确性，即在1937年的《爱尔兰宪法》中将“尊严”包括在内反映了一种特殊的，宗派的和保守的天主教观点，而不是（像其他一些学者所做的那样）将“尊严”视为包括在内。迈出了将普遍自由的人权伦理载入爱尔兰宪法的第一步。对于穆恩来说，“尊严”的宗派政治起源是爱尔兰，因为他认为人格尊严在多大程度上支撑了人权的正当性，因此他对人权的持怀疑态度更为普遍。在反对Moyn的结论时，本文根据档案研究对“尊严”一词所在的《爱尔兰宪法》序言的起草进行了详细的重新审查，将其置于当时的政治天主教和爱尔兰民族主义的思想变革中。特别是，本文首次探讨了从“尊严”的同时翻译成《宪法》的爱尔兰语言版本可以收集到多少见解，以及“选择”的重要性。uaisleacht '在爱尔兰文本中。以此为依据，本文确定了在序言中尊严的使用和含义似乎有所不同的各种不同影响，然后再根据草稿的历史重新考虑考虑Moyn的评估在多大程度上是正确的。