Abstract:

Whether human rights are universal or not has been the subject of much debate among legal experts, but major controversy has surrounded rights substance, not their structure. Authors discuss whether freedom of belief or gender equality, for example, are ubiquitous, without considering, however, that having a right may mean significantly different things in different legal systems, depending on how rights are structured. This essay addresses the arguable universality of a certain structure of rights; it does so by tackling the worldwide spread of proportionality and the conception of fundamental rights that underlies it in the principles-theory variant. Alexy has formulated a strong thesis on the universality of a certain conception of rights (and principles). He claims that proportionality is conceptually necessary in all minimally developed legal systems because it derives from the very structure of principles (or fundamental rights) and vice-versa.

Keywords: