Integrity in Motion: Regrounding UDHR’s Article 18 through Malik’s ‘Freedom of Becoming’

Journal
Oxford Journal of Law and Religion
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date Issued
2026-04-10
Author(s)
Type
Article
DOI
URL
Abstract
Article 18’s limits remain doctrinally unsettled. Drawing on unpublished lectures and notebooks by Charles H. Malik (1939–46), this article reconstructs the philosophical genealogy of the UDHR’s ‘right to change’ and contrasts it with standard diplomatic narratives. The archival record reveals Malik’s depth of grammar of the person as ens in via, with dignity understood as a vertical ascent towards truth. Malik’s anthropology, I argue, supplies a powerful justificatory grammar for the UDHR’s ‘right to change’, a grammar that can illuminate the final text without denying the pluralist dynamics of the drafting process. Translating this ‘freedom of becoming’ into adjudication, I propose a double yardstick for limitations: integrity cost, namely, whether a rule forces misalignment between conviction and conduct, and concrete third-party harm, specific and nonspeculative harms to which restrictions must be narrowly tailored. This reframing casts neutrality as relational reasonableness and equips courts to protect conscience without theological line drawing, regrounding Article 18’s normative core across jurisdictions.
License
Acceso Restringido.
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How to cite
Pedro Pallares-Yabur, Integrity in Motion: Regrounding UDHR’s Article 18 through Malik’s ‘Freedom of Becoming’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1093/ojlr/rwag009