persons of the living, and does not seem to have retained with sufficient clarity the links between these latter and their dead 5, including for the determination of their juridical consequences? 10. In the long run, the fundamental challenge of the existence of each human being is summed up in the search for the meaning of such existence; one is thus bound, amidst the occupations of daily life, to reflect on the destiny of each one6, and on death as part of life. As so lucidly pondered A.D. Sertillanges, in a monograph published more than half a century ago (and almost forgotten in our days), "it is believed that death is an absence, when it is a secret presence. (...) Earlier, only that which was visible ocuppied home; nowadays, a mystery inhabits it; it has been instituted in it an intimate cult (...). The dead survive, whilst they can inspire us noble actions. (...) Fortunately there are faithful hearts. For them, those who have disappeared remain on earth in order to continue doing goodness (...)" 7. 11. In fact, the respect for the dead, always cultivated in the most distinct cultures and religions, soon found expression (though insufficient treatment) also in the domain of Law. Already the ancient Roman law, for example, safeguarded penally such respect for the dead. In the comparative law of our days, it can be found that the penal codes of numerous countries tipify and sanction the crimes against the respect for the dead (such as, e.g., the subtraction and the hiding of the mortal remains of a human being). And at least one trend of the legal doctrine on the matter visualizes as passive subject of the right to respect for the dead the community itself (starting with the relatives) which the dead belonged to. 12. Even though the juridical subjectivity of an individual ceases with his death (thus no longer being, when having died, a subject of Law or titulaire of rights and duties), his mortal remains - containing a corporeal parcel of humanity, - continue to be juridically protected (supra). The respect to the mortal remains preserves the memory of the dead as well as the sentiments of the living (in particular his relatives or persons close to him) tied to him by links of of affection, - this being the value juridically protected8. In safeguarding the respect for the dead, also penal law gives concrete expression to a universal feeling of the human conscience. The respect for the dead is thus due - at the levels of both internal and international legal orders, in the persons of the living. 13. In fact, the respect for the dead is not an element entirely alien to the international judicial practice. It may be recalled that, in the Advisory Opinion of the 5 . The link between the living and those who depart from this world ensues from several works of universal literature, such as, e.g., the beautiful Tibetan Book of the Dead, the contents of which are thought to have been orally transmitted since the XIVth century, having been published in the so-called "Western world" for the first time in 1927; cf. Bardo-Thödol, El Libro Tibetano de los Muertos, Madrid, EDAF, 1997, pp. 9-223. 6 . In spite of all that has already been written, in universal literature and in philosophy throughout the centuries, on the human being and his destiny, one has not reached an explanation or conclusive answer on this latter. Destiny continues to be a mysterious enigma which follows each one throughout his whole existence, and which seems to have its roots in the depths of the interiority of each human being. 7 . A.D. Sertillanges, Nuestros Muertos, Buenos Aires, Impr. Caporaletti, s/f, pp. 13, 36-37 and 49. A contemporary account of the experience in the asisstance to persons closed to the end of their lives lead the author to single out the deepend relations of the agonizing person with the others, and to call for "una società che, invece di negare la morte, impari a integrarla nella vita" M. de Hennezel, La Morte Amica, 4th. ed., Milano, Bibl. Univ. Rizzoli, 2000, pp. 39 and 16. 8 . Bruno Py, La mort et le droit, Paris, PUF, 1997, pp. 31, 70-71, 79-80 and 123.