Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T14:29:14.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting, and Intent. By Johannes Morsink. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Pp. ix, 379. $49.95; £37.50.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Jerome J. Shestack
Jerome J. Shestack*
Affiliation:
Wolf, Block, Shorr and Solis-Cohen, and International Commission of Jurists
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Book Reviews and Notes
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 94 , Issue 3 , July 2000 , pp. 600 - 603
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2000

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.)

References

1 Additionally, the Declaration (or most of it) has become a normative instrument that creates legal obligations for member states. See Sohn, Louis, The New International Law: Protection of the Rights of Individuals Rather Than States, 32 Am. U. L. Rev. 1, 16–17 (1982)Google Scholar; Buergenthal, Thomas, International Human Rights In A Nutshell 29–33 (1988)Google Scholar.

2 Morsink lists an inner core of the drafters: René Cassin (France), Pen-Chan Chiang (China) John Humphrey (Canada), Charles Habib Malik (Lebanon), Alexei P. Pavlov (Soviet Union), Eleanor Roosevelt (United States), and Herman Santa Cruz (Chile).

3 Morsink mentions that his information on the different traditions that were represented (from a total of 58 states)—drawn from a secondary source—does not tally with the number of states that voted (or abstained) on the Declaration (56). This minor inconsistency in the numbers does not, however, affect his argument.

4 Humphrey, John P., Human Rights and the United Nations: A Great Adventure (1984)Google Scholar. Humphrey’s volume is largely his personal odyssey; only about 50 pages are devoted to the history of the Declaration.