Abstract

Proportionality is the standard that guides the balancing of human or fundamental rights in law, requiring that the interference with rights must be justified by reasons that keep a reasonable relation with the intensity of the interference. One may well regard the principle of proportionality as a universal standard of rationality, which any legal system must recognise. Thus, when applied to human rights, proportionality presents a universal human rights principle. However, the thesis of the universal validity of the principle of proportionality faces various objections. I will refute these objections. First, I will distinguish diverse meanings of the universal character of principles and argue that the principle of proportionality is in a certain sense universally valid. In the second part, I will analyse the content of the principle of proportionality as part of a general framework of balancing and suggest a general scheme for examining the justification of the interference with a fundamental right according to the standard of proportionality.