Damir Banović (University of Sarajevo - Faculty of Law) has posted Individual Identity, Collective Identity and Human Dignity What Are the Best Models To Accommodate Different Identities? on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The article addresses the different theoretical and multidisciplinary approaches and questions of individualism/abstract citizenship and collectivism/substantial citizenship and corresponding individual and collective identities, politics of recognition, liberal and communitarian perspective, and recent developments within the stream of liberal multiculturalism. Moreover, this article deals with different models, constitutional arrangements and international human rights law provisions that give priority either to individuals or to collectives. Human dignity as a value has been used as a foundation for both the individual and the collective, arguing that not only individuals have a moral worth and dignity but also the collective, and consequently they both entail human right(s). Additionally, the article analyses the principle of equality and non-discrimination as mechanisms for equal political and legal recognition of individuals, but also of groups and collectives, regardless of their identity. Collective rights have been constitutional within multinational states, whether in the form of federalism or other forms of territorial, fiscal autonomy, non-territorial cultural autonomy, affirmative actions, quotas, veto mechanism, etc. The article ends with what, in my view, holds arguments better in the debate between the collective and the individual political and legal recognition.
