Equality, Dignity, and Same-Sex Marriage: A Rights Disagreement in Democratic Societies

This book investigates the concepts of equality and dignity under same-sex marriage jurisprudence. Having surveyed the multinational developments of same-sex marriage and arguments from proponents and opponents, the writer studies the two concepts with an aim to revealing their inadequacies as grounds for contentious rights claims such as same-sex marriage. To truly live up to the spirit of equality and equal dignity, the writer argues that the seemingly uncompromising disagreement over the issue requires people to explore common ground to make room for deliberation. It also requires the disagreeing parties to acknowledge that their disagreement is about the best interpretation of fundamental values that everyone shares, and not confrontation between conflicting worldviews neither of which is comprehensible to the other.

Man Yee Karen Lee, Ph.D. (2009) in Laws, University of Hong Kong, is a law lecturer at Hong Kong Shue Yan University. She wrote ＂Universal Human Dignity: Some Reflections in the Asian Context＂, (2008) Asian Journal of Comparative Law: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Art 10.