Many attempts have been presented to reinterpret the human rights regime in a contemporary way and to adapt it to supposedly changed circumstances of world politics. This book is part of these holistic approaches that progressively form an ‘intellectual roof’, the driving set of values which is there ‘to save’ the universal rules-based world order post-COVID-19. Indeed, the erosion of multilateralism enshrined in the United Nations (UN) Charter is a ‘fork in the road’ for the upcoming reshaping of the various arenas of diplomatic and international legal affairs, such as the UN General Assembly or the International Red Cross in Geneva.

The ‘stakeholders’ of this volume are a group of recognised human rights lawyers originating from Iceland and Northern parts of Germany, proven experts on the aforementioned subject matter and fine observers of the human rights scene and the respective multilateral processes. In their editorial, therefore, much substantial argumentation in favour of human dignity as playing a continuously important role as a basic concept of human rights is to be found. Since the outset of the contractual instruments, it has been, in line with the authors’ argument, central to stress that this underlying thesis remains uncontested. The editors of the Human Rights Magazine of the University of Potsdam aptly quote the Preamble of the World Covenant on Human Rights for Civil and Political Rights when referring to the ‘inherent dignity of the human person’ and its counterpart in Article 1 of the Bonner Grundgesetz. ‘Inherence’ as such – a term which describes decisive parts of international law, such as self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter – is a rarely used, almost unique ‘standard’ in today's international sphere, the latter being exposed to positivism and a new era of bipolar system rivalry – all of which therefore constitute good reasons to accept the proposal of a right to human dignity.

The book, which was published by Nomos Verlag, is a conference transcript. Questions of principle are reflected in a variety of contributions in a very catchy way, with case law included so that the whole publication is given a ground-breaking outfit.