ISBN : 9780198713258
Over the past decade or so, philosophical speculation about human rights has tended to fall into two streams. On the one hand, there are " theorists, who think of human rights as rights that play a distinctive role, or set of roles, in modern international politics: setting universal standards of political legitimacy, serving as norms of international concern, and/or imposing limits on the exercise of national sovereignty.
This edited volume explores this disagreement, its underlying sources, and related issues in the philosophy of human rights. Using the Orthodox-Political debate as a springboard for broader reflection, the volume covers a diverse range of questions about: the relevance of the history of human rights to their philosophical comprehension; how to properly understand the relationship between human rights morality and law; how to balance the normative character of human rights - their description of an ideal world - with the requirement that they be feasible in the here and now; the role of human rights in a world shaped by politics and power; and how to reconcile the individualistic and communitarian aspects of human rights.
All chapters are accompanied by useful and probing commentaries, which help to create dialogues throughout the entire volume.
Adam Etinson: Introduction
I. THE RELEVANCE OF HISTORY
1 Martti Koskenniemi: Rights, History, Critique
Annabel Brett: 1.1 Doing Without an Original: A Commentary on Martti Koskenniemi
2 Samuel Moyn: Human Rights in Heaven
John Tasioulas: 2.1 Philosophizing the Real World of Human Rights: A Reply to Samuel Moyn
Jeff Flynn: 2.2 Genealogies of Human Rights: What's at Stake?
II. THE ORTHODOX-POLITICAL DEBATE
3 Jeremy Waldron: Human Rights: A Critique of the Raz/Rawls Approach
Joseph Raz: 3.1 On Waldron's Critique of Raz on Human Rights
4 James W. Nickel: Assigning Functions to Human Rights: Methodological Issues in Human Rights Theory
Adam Etinson: 4.1 On Being Faithful to the 'Practice': A Response to Nickel
5 Andrea Sangiovanni: The Concept of Human Rights: The Broad View
Rainer Forst: 5.1 Human Rights in Context: A Comment on Sangiovanni
III. MORALITY AND LAW
6 Allen Buchanan & Gopal Sreenivasan: Taking International Legality Seriously: A Methodology for Human Rights
Erasmus Mayr: 6.1 Instrumentalism and Human Rights: A Response to Buchanan and Sreenivasan
7 Mattias Kumm: The Turn to Justification: On the Structure and Domain of Human Rights Practice
Samantha Besson: 7.1 Human Rights and Justification: A Reply to Mattias Kumm
8 Andreas Follesdal: Appreciating the Margin of Appreciation
George Letsas: 8.1 The Margin of Appreciation Revisited: A Response to Follesdal
IV. IDEALS AND THEIR LIMITS
9 Kimberley Brownlee: Dwelling in Possibility: Ideals, Aspirations, and Human Rights
Rowan Cruft: 9.1 In What Sense Should Respect for Human Rights Be Attainable? A Response to Brownlee
10 Elizabeth Ashford: The Nature of Violations of the Human Right to Subsistence
Daniel Weinstock: 10.1 Remarks on Elizabeth Ashford's The Nature of Violations of the Human Right to Subsistence
V. THE CHALLENGES OF POLITICS
11 Pablo Gilabert: Reflections on Human Rights and Power
Elizabeth Frazer: 11.1 Reflections on Human Rights and Power: A Commentary
12 C.A.J. Coady: The Hazards of Rescue
Vasuki Nesiah: 12.1 The Politics of Humanitarian Morality: Reflections on The Hazards of Rescue
VI. INDIVIDUALS, BORDERS, AND GROUPS
13 Peter Jones: Human Rights and Collective Self-Determination
Will Kymlicka: 13.1 Linking Self-Determination and Human Rights: A Comment on Peter Jones
14 Alex Levitov & Stephen Macedo: Human Rights, Membership, and Moral Responsibility in an Unjust World: The Case of Immigration Restrictions
Seyla Benhabib: 14.1 The Slippery Slope of Statist Cosmopolitanism: A Response to Levitov and Macedo
