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Journal of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine

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The Orthodox Tradition and Fourth-Generation Human Rights

Andrii-Yaroslav S. Prots

Received 27.11.2025, Revised 18.01.2026, Accepted 31.03.2026

Abstract

The article examines the concept of fourth-generation human rights in relation to the Orthodox tradition and its anthropological foundations. It considers theoretical and legal approaches to the classification of emerging rights – bioethical, digital, ecological, and rights in the sphere of artificial intelligence. It is shown that in modern legal scholarship these rights appear as a response to the challenges of scientific and technological progress, digitalization, and the global ecological crisis, yet they remain controversial in terms of their autonomy and legal recognition. Special attention is devoted to the Orthodox assessment of key problematic areas. In the context of bioethics (euthanasia, abortion, genetic engineering, cloning), the Orthodox tradition emphasizes the sanctity of life as a gift from God and the inadmissibility of interventions that undermine the uniqueness of the person. In the field of digital rights (privacy, protection of personal data, freedom of information, cybersecurity), it highlights the dignity and freedom of the human person, which cannot be reduced to an object of control or manipulation. The Orthodox teaching on «creation» provides an additional dimension to ecological rights, interpreting them as human responsibility before God for nature and future generations. In the realm of artificial intelligence and neurotechnologies, attention is drawn to the danger of reducing the person to algorithmic models and the necessity of preserving personal uniqueness. The article identifies common values that unite modern legal discourse and Orthodox anthropology: dignity, solidarity, protection of life, and responsibility for creation. At the same time, it analyzes the points of tension between the secular vision of individual autonomy and the religious tradition, which emphasizes the moral limits of freedom. It concludes that the integration of Orthodox values into the legal understanding of fourth-generation human rights may contribute to forming a more holistic and humanistic vision of human rights in the context of contemporary civilizational transformations.

Keywords:

fourth-generation human rights; bioethics; digital rights; ecological rights; artificial intelligence; Orthodox anthropology; dignity; solidarity

https://doi.org/10.31359/1993-0909-2026-33-1-370

Retrieved from Journal NALSU №1, 2026 year

Pages 370-389

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Suggested citation

Prots, A.-Ya.S. (2026). The Orthodox Tradition and Fourth-Generation Human Rights. Journal of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, 33(1), 370-389. https://doi.org/10.31359/1993-0909-2026-33-1-370