Events

1 July 2010

Equality, dignity, and the disagreement on same-sex marriage

Lecture

Seminar by Dr Karen Lee, Shue Yan University, Hong Kong.

Equality and dignity are two fundamental grounds of the case for legalising same-sex marriage. Yet, their meanings remain indeterminate. Despite being essential ingredients in human rights jurisprudence, the ideas of equality and dignity by nature evoke different interpretations among people who have different views about how people should live and how society should function. Hence, one should acknowledge the limits of these two concepts in discourse about rights. To truly live up to the spirit of equality and equal dignity the disagreeing parties must explore common ground. They have to acknowledge that their disagreement is about the best interpretation of fundamental values that everyone shares, and not confrontation between conflicting and mutually incomprehensible world-views.

Dr Karen Lee graduated from Auckland University in 1999 with a conjoint LLB and BA (majoring in Political Studies). She obtained her PhD in law at the University of Hong Kong in 2009, and now teaches law at Hong Kong Shue Yan University. She has recently published Equality, Dignity, and Same-Sex Marriage: A Rights Disagreement in Democratic Societies, with Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Commentator: David Merry.
David Merry is a graduate student and tutor in the Department of Philosophy at The University of Auckland. His research interests are in moral psychology, ethics and the philosophy of art.

Philosophy

Organisation:

Society for Legal and Social Philosophy