Abstract

SOTOMAYOR ACOSTA, Juan Oberto  and  TAMAYO ARBOLEDA, Fernando León. Human dignity and criminal law: a difficult convergence. Approach to the constitutional content of the article 1 of Colombian Penal Code. Rev. Derecho [online]. 2017, n.48, pp.21-53. ISSN 0121-8697.

This paper addresses the concept of human dignity on the Colombian legal system and the problems of this concept for the construction of a right-based system. In this order, the paper analyzes the pressure that human rights discourse has putted on the modern criminal systems, connected to an exclusive view of human dignity, which has helped the expansion of the power of the State to punish and leaded to legitimate a harsher criminal law. Starting from jurisprudence, fundamental rights theory and by human dignity as limit for the power of the State to punish, the paper studies the content of the 1st Article from the Colombian penal code, particularly analyzing the specific guarantees that could be derived from the different aspects of human dignity: as perimeter of human behavior, as equality mandate, as autonomy in the life project design and, finally, as protection of intangible goods such as physical and moral well-being. The limits for the criminal law derived from the guarantees built from human dignity are part from the 1st Article of Colombian penal code and are ties that works on the creation of criminal laws and on the sentencing process.

Keywords : criminal law; constitutional law; human dignity; human rights.

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