Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:16:32.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - International Human Rights Law: Concepts and Grounds of Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2020

David Lefkowitz
Affiliation:
University of Richmond
Get access

Summary

This chapter investigates the conceptual question “what is a human right?” and the normative question “in virtue of what considerations does A enjoy a human right to X?” by examining the recent debate between two schools of legal and political philosophers.Orthodox theorists argue that human rights are a moral right possessed by all human being simply in virtue of their humanity.In contrast, political-practice theorists argue that human rights are constitutive elements of an ongoing attempt to reconceive state sovereignty and the international political order to which it is integral.This political undertaking, which includes the creation, application, and enforcement of international human rights law, provides the proper object of a philosophy of human rights.The bulk of this chapter is devoted to a critical examination of attempts by political-practice theorists to demonstrate the limited relevance of orthodox accounts of human rights to morally justifying international human rights practice (again, including international human rights law).It concludes with a brief consideration of the role that appeals to objective moral principles should play within that practice.

Type
Chapter
Information
Philosophy and International Law
A Critical Introduction
, pp. 129 - 156
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×