Abstract

The history of law of the Principality of Liechtenstein featured some forerunners of human dignity for about 200 years. In 1812, the Prince already adopted the Austrian ABGB including the famous § 16 that respects each human being as a person with rights. The constitution of 1818 did not comprise any basic rights, whereas the new constitution of 1862 did grant only the nationals but not all human beings civil rights. The constitution of 1921 that is in force nowadays implicated the concept of human dignity§ 16 ABGB. In 2005 human dignity was integrated into the constitution explicitly as an individual right. Art. 27bis of the Liechtenstein constitution, which embodies human dignity, is in line with German, Swiss and European legal norms, constitutes an individual right that can be invoked before court and beyond is the rationale of all basic rights. In the law of Liechtenstein, human dignity is inviolablePrincipality of LiechtensteinArt. 27bis LV. Yet like every legal norm, human dignity can and must be interpreted. An important aspect of human dignity with reference to the legal order is the idea of an objective for the legislation. Due to the late implementation of human dignity as a constitutional norm, so far the constitutional court had only once to deal with it.