Revisiting the Origins of Human Rights

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-1-107-10764-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 450 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 756 g

Does the history of human rights begin decades, centuries or even millennia ago? What constitutes this history? And what can we really learn from 'the textbook narrative' - the unilinear, forward-looking tale of progress and inevitable triumph authored primarily by activist international law scholars? Does such a distinguishable entity as 'the history of human rights' even exist, or are efforts to read evidence in past events of the later 'evolution' of human rights ideology and phenomenon futile? This book explores these questions through a collective effort by history, law, theology and anthropology scholars. Rather than entities with an absolute, predefined 'essence', this book conceptualizes human rights as open-ended and ambiguous entities. It taps into recent 'revisionist' debates and asks: what do we really know of the history of human rights?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Slotte, Pamela

Halme-Tuomisaari, Miia

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword. History of human rights as political intervention in the present Martti Koskenniemi; 1. Revisiting the origins of human rights: introduction Miia Halme-Tuomisaari and Pamela Slotte; Part I. Foundations: Antiquity to the Enlightenment: 2. Human rights in antiquity? Revisiting anachronism and Roman law Jacob Giltaij and Kaius Tuori; 3. Medieval natural rights discourse Virpi Mäkinen; 4. Human rights and the Thomist tradition Annabel Brett; Part II. Pluralities of Discourses and Rights: The Enlightenment and Single-issue Causes in the Nineteenth Century: 5. Revolutionary rights Lynn Hunt; 6. Giuseppe Mazzini in (and beyond) the history of human rights Samuel Moyn; 7. Constituting the Imperial community: rights, common good, and authority in Britain's Atlantic empire, 1607–1815 Lauren Benton and Aaron Slater; 8. Human rights discourse in women's rights conventions in the United States, 1848–70 Kathryn Kish Sklar; 9. The peace movement and human rights Martin Ceadel; 10. Socialism and the language of rights: the origins and implications of economic rights Gregory Claeys; Part III. Institutional Practices and Relations of Rights: Toward the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 11. André Mandelstam and the internationalization of human rights (1869–1949) Dzovinar Kévonian; 12. From League of Nations mandates to decolonization: a brief history of rights Taina Tuori; 13. 'Blessed are the peacemakers': Christian internationalism, ecumenical voices and the quest for human rights Pamela Slotte; 14. Lobbying for relevance: American internationalists, French civil libertarians and the UDHR Miia Halme-Tuomisaari; 15. The Cold War and the rise of an American conception of human rights, 1945–8 Olivier Barsalou; 16. Afterword Conor Gearty.

Über Autor(innen)

Slotte, Pamela
Pamela Slotte is an academy research fellow at the Academy of Finland and a senior research fellow at the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki.

Halme-Tuomisaari, Miia
Miia Halme-Tuomisaari is a research fellow at the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. She is also the Research Director and co-creator of Allegra Lab (allegralaboratory.net).