By Angeliki – Myrsini Spiliopoulou,
In Greece, there is the constitutional right of free development of personality: a right that gives the opportunity for everyone to make their choices and have their beliefs, with their only compass being themselves, with no criticism of the nation or third persons. However, as it usually happens, rights are not limitless. Even our freedom to make choices, sometimes, may be restricted, and in this case, it is “good morals” that does it. In Greek law, it is a very sensitive term and, in the past, there were many difficulties to find its meaning. After many thoughts and tries, good morals were defined. According to Greek courts, it is a very objective term: the morality of the average prudent man. It is not the opinion of the judge, the church or any other person that matters, but what actually matters is what the society believes as right.
In the fifth article of the Greek Constitution, the free development of personality is established, a right that may be limited because of three reasons: rights of other people, other articles of the Constitution and good morals. The first two limitations seem logical: no one should use their rights in a way that harms the rights of other humans. But, after looking the third parameter, we must wonder how normal is the existence of a right, when this can be used only in the way that an average person would use it? It looks like each one’s individuality is in great danger, with the only goal being to not disturb society. This definition, as it is said, would mean that Greece does not promote liberal and democratic principles. Thankfully, it is not what actually happens. Society expresses itself via elections, and the elected instrument is empowered to legislate, in order to make regulations that satisfy the majority of the electors, but, always with respect to minorities and to their personal lifestyle. So, reasonable regulations may occur and, sometimes, they are inevitable because they are related to ambiguous matters.
An extremely important matter that has split the mass is the legal behaviour around prostitution. As any job, it is protected through article 5 of the Greek Constitution because of the importance of anyone’s ability to choose their living without harming others. Laws that may prohibit prostitution are allowed to exist, because of the good morals. Not for everybody prostitution is well-evaluated. It is supposed to be a job via which, women, or men, are victims of their sexes. Additionally to their ethics, there are also practical problems about hygiene. Those were the reasons for the legislator to make laws about prostitution. With the law 2734/1999 and for the time being reviewed text, law 2839/2000, prostitutes are allowed to practise their job only if they are certified. For every 15 days, they have to go through medical tests, the house in which they work must have the owner’s consent, to be the workplace for up to 3 persons. Mandatory for them is to not have any sexually transmitted disease or psychological problems, being older than 18 years old, not being convicted for homicide, trafficking, robbery etc. And the most important: not being married. The last term has nothing to do with the public health. We must accept that is a political choice, because, for society, prostitution is against ethics.
As it is demonstrated, limitations can exist for any right and sometimes it is logical and wanted. Even the most important of them, the right of free development of personality, does not mean that people really can do whatever they want in their everyday life. However, what matters is all these limitations exist in order to serve democracy and protect majority and individuality. These goals should not be forgotten in any controversial problem that may occur.
References
- Κώστας Χ. Χρυσόγος- Σπύρος Β. Βλαχόπουλος. Ατομικά και Κοινωνικά Δικαιώματα, 4η έκδοση. Νομική Βιβλιοθήκη. Αθήνα. 2017.
- Επιτρέπεται το σεξ ως εργασία, Syntagma Watch.gr. Available here
