Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T22:23:51.431Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Imagining a World without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2022

Zachary Elkins Open the ORCID record for Zachary Elkins [Opens in a new window]  and
Tom Ginsburg
Zachary Elkins*
Affiliation:
Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Tom Ginsburg
Affiliation:
University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, Illinois, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is thought to have shaped constitutions profoundly since its adoption in 1948. The authors identify two empirical implications that should follow from such influence. First, UDHR content should be reflected in subsequent national constitutions. Second, such reflections should bear the particular marks of the UDHR itself, not those of the postwar zeitgeist more broadly. The authors examine the historical evidence at various levels to identify and untangle the UDHR's impact. In a macro analysis, they leverage an original data set on the content of constitutions since 1789. They explore historical patterns in the creation and spread of rights, and test whether 1948 exhibits a noticeable disruption in rights provision. The authors build a multivariate model that predicts rights provision with constitution- and rights-level covariates. To gain further analytic leverage, they unearth the process that produced the UDHR and identify plausible alternative formulations evident in a set of discarded proposals. The authors further test the plausibility of UDHR influence by searching for direct references to the document in subsequent constitutional texts and constitutional proceedings. The evidence suggests that the UDHR significantly accelerated the adoption of a particular set of constitutional rights.

Keywords

constitutionsdiffusionhuman rightstreatiesUniversal Declaration of Human RightsUnited Nationscritical juncture
Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 327 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Trustees of Princeton University

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

Alcañiz, Isabella. 2012. “Democratization and Multilateral Security.” World Politics 64, no. 2 (April): 306–40. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887112000068.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvarez, Alejandro. 1944. La Reconstrucción del Derecho de Gentes: El Nuevo Orden y la Renovación Social. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Nascimento.Google Scholar
American Anthropological Association. 1947. “Statement on Human Rights.” American Anthropologist 49, no. 4: 539–43. At https://www.jstor.org/stable/662893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Law Institute. 1946. “Statement of Essential Human Rights.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 243, no. 1: 18–26. At https://doi.org/10.1177/000271624624300107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Colin J., Drori, Gili S., and Meyer, John W.. 2012. “World Influences on Human Rights Language in Constitutions: A Cross-National Study.” International Sociology 27, no. 4: 483–501. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580912443575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berdion Del Valle, Fernando, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 2017. “(Re)discovering Duties: Individual Responsibility in the Age of Rights.” Minnesota Journal of International Law 26, no. 1: 189–245. At https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mjil/259, accessed April 10, 2022.Google Scholar
Bogus, Carl T. 1998. “The Hidden History of the Second Amendment.” UC Davis Law Review 31, no. 2: 309–408. At https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/31/2/Articles/DavisVol31No2_Bogus.pdf, accessed April 10, 2022.Google Scholar
Bomhoff, Jacco. 2008. “Balancing, the Global and the Local: Judicial Balancing as a Problematic Topic in Comparative (Constitutional) Law.” Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 31, no. 2: 555–86. At https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol31/iss2/2, accessed April 10, 2022.Google Scholar
Chernykh, Svitlana, and Elkins, Zachary. 2021. “How Constitutional Drafters Use Comparative Evidence.” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice. At https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2021.1990737.Google Scholar
Chilton, Adam, and Versteeg, Mila. 2020. How Constitutional Rights Matter. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colley, Linda. 2021. The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World. New York, N.Y.: Liveright Publishing.Google Scholar
Cress, Lawrence Delbert. 1984. “An Armed Community: The Origins and Meaning of the Right to Bear Arms.” Journal of American History 71, no. 1: 22–42. At https://doi.org/10.2307/1899832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elkins, Zachary. 2009. “Constitutional Networks.” In Kahler, Miles, ed., Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary. 2013. “Comparability and the Analysis of National Constitutions.” APSA-Comparative Politics Newsletter 23, no. 1: 7–9. At http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/1471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elkins, Zachary. 2021. “The Mutualism of Human Rights Law and Interest Groups.” University of Chicago Law Review Online. At https://lawreviewblog.uchicago.edu/2021/04/05/cv-elkins/, accessed April 10, 2022.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, and Ginsburg, Tom. 2022. “Replication files for Imagining a World without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Harvard Dataverse, V1. At https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QW3D57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Melton, James. 2009. The Endurance of National Constitutions. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Melton, James. 2016. “Time and Constitutional Efficacy.” In Ginsburg, Tom and Huq, Aziz, eds., Assessing Constitutional Performance. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Melton, James. [2008] 2021. Characteristics of National Constitutions, Version 3.0. At http://www.comparativeconstitutionsproject.org, accessed Jan. 31, 2022.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Melton, James. [2013] 2022. Constitute: The World's Constitutions to Read, Search, and Compare. At http://constituteproject.org, accessed April 10, 2022.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Simmons, Beth. 2013. “Getting to Rights: Treaty Ratification, Constitutional Convergence, and Human Rights Practice.” Harvard International Law Journal 54, no. 1: 61–95. At https://harvardilj.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2013/03/HLI102.pdf, accessed April 10, 2022.Google Scholar
Engle, Karen. 2001. “From Skepticism to Embrace: Human Rights and the American Anthropological Association from 1947–1999.” Human Rights Quarterly 23, no. 3: 536–59. At https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2001.0034.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Free World. 1945. “A Charter for the United Nations.” Vol. 9, no. 5: 77–83.Google Scholar
Gleditsch, Kristian S., and Ward, Michael D.. 1999. “A Revised List of Independent States since the Congress of Vienna.” International Interactions 25, no. 4: 393–413. At https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629908434958.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. 1945. La Carta Magna de la Comunidad de las Naciones. Havana, Cuba: Editorial Lex.Google Scholar
Hutchins, Robert M. 1948. The Preliminary Draft of a World Constitution. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Institut de Droit International. 1929. Déclaration des Droits Internationaux de l'Homme. New York, N.Y.Google Scholar
Ishay, Micheline R. 2008. The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Jaccard, Paul. 1912. “The Distribution of the Flora in the Alpine Zone.” New Phytologist 11, no. 2: 37–50. At https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1912.tb05611.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killick, Rebecca, and Eckley, Idris A.. 2014. “Changepoint: An R Package for Changepoint Analysis.” Journal of Statistical Software 58, no. 3: 1–19. At https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v058.i03.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lauterpacht, Hersch. 1945. An International Bill of the Rights of Man. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Law, David S., and Versteeg, Mila. 2011. “The Evolution and Ideology of Global Constitutionalism.” California Law Review 99, no. 5: 1163–258. At https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38913R.Google Scholar
Levinson, Sanford. 2009. “For Whom Is the Heller Decision Important and Why?” Lewis & Clark Law Review 13, no. 2: 315–33. At https://law.lclark.edu/law_reviews/lewis_and_clark_law_review/past_issues/volume_13/number_2.php, accessed April 11, 2022.Google Scholar
Martinez, Jenny S. 2012. The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melton, James, Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Leetaru, Kalev. 2013. “On the Interpretability of Law: Lessons from the Decoding of National Constitutions.” British Journal of Political Science 43, no. 2: 399–423. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morsink, Johannes. 1999. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting, and Intent. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyn, Samuel. 2012a. “Substance, Scale, and Salience: The Recent Historiography of Human Rights.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 8: 123–40. At https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-102811-173847.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyn, Samuel. 2012b. The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noy, Natalya F., and McGuinness, Deborah L.. 2001. “Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology.” Stanford University, Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory Technical Report KSL-01-05. At https://protege.stanford.edu/publications/ontology_development/ontology101.pdf, accessed April 11, 2022.Google Scholar
Parsons, Wilfrid. 1941. “America's Peace Aims.” Pamphlet No. 28. Washington, D.C.: Catholic Association for International Peace.Google Scholar
Posner, Eric A. 2014. The Twilight of Human Rights Law. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Christopher N. J. 2013. “Convergence, Reaction, and Translation: Human Rights in History.” Harvard International Law Journal 54, no. 1. Symposium. At http://opiniojuris.org/2013/03/04/hilj-symposium-a-response-to-getting-to-rights-treaty-ratification-constitutional-convergence-and-human-rights-practice/, accessed April 11, 2022.Google Scholar
Rutledge, Jennifer Geist. 2016. Feeding the Future: School Lunch Programs as Global Social Policy. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Samaha, Adam M. 2013. “Levels of Generality, Constitutional Comedy, and Legal Design.” University of Illinois Law Review no. 5: 1733–74. At http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2321205.Google Scholar
Sandholtz, Wayne. 2012. “Treaties, Constitutions, Courts, and Human Rights.” Journal of Human Rights 11, no. 1: 17–32. At https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2012.648148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schabas, William A., ed. 2013. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The Travaux Préparatoires. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shalhope, Robert E. 1982. “The Ideological Origins of the Second Amendment.” Journal of American History 69, no. 3: 599–614. At https://doi.org/10.2307/1903139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, Beth A. 2009. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waltz, Susan Eileen. 2001. “Universalizing Human Rights: The Role of Small States in the Construction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Human Rights Quarterly 23, no. 1: 44–72. At https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590220138378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waltz, Susan. 2002. “Reclaiming and Rebuilding the History of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Third World Quarterly 23, no. 3: 437–48. At https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590220138378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, H. G. 1940. The New World Order. London, UK: Secker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Western, Bruce, and Kleykamp, Meredith. 2004. “A Bayesian Change Point Model for Historical Time Series Analysis.” Political Analysis 12, no. 4: 354–74. At https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mph023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weyland, Kurt. 2007. Bounded Rationality and Policy Diffusion: Social Sector Reform in Latin America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Elkins and Ginsburg Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QW3D57
Link