Images of Corporeality in Law: The Experience of the BRICS Countries

BRICS Law Journal. 2024. No. 1. P. 58–83.

Зорина А. Е., Япрынцев И. М.

This article presents the authors’ approaches to understanding the concept
of corporeality in its normative dimension. The purpose of the study is to conceptualize
the images of human corporeality that exist in the system of legal regulation. Based
on the idea that the research category is a representation of certain characteristics
of the human body, the authors substantiate the possibility of using institutional
and functional-activity approaches to analyzing human corporeality. Both of these
approaches are based on distinct foundations, which include social institutions, fields
of activity and functional purposes of the human body. The common basis for the two
approaches lies in the biosocial component, which is considered one of the defining
characteristics of an image of corporeality. Depending on the approach used, the
authors propose three classifications of images of corporeality: private and public,
collective and individual and normal and abnormal. Regulatory practices that are
aimed at consolidating these images of corporeality are analyzed within the framework
of the current legal regulations in the BRICS countries. The authors conclude by noting
that corporeality is a biosocial category that serves as the basis for legal subjectivity,
while gaps in existing images of corporeality are the basis for its normalization.

Keywords: BRICS, state, individual, normality, corporeality, HUMAN BODY, body functions, collective body, abnormality

Publication based on the results of: Актуальные аспекты исследования прав человека в контексте биоэтики (2024)