The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law

Captures the essence of the multi-layered subject of human rights law in a way that is authoritative, critical and scholarly.

Conor Gearty (Edited by), Costas Douzinas (Edited by)

9781107016248, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 November 2012

372 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.72 kg

'… the book presents excellent and intellectually stimulating articles that look at human rights from a range of different perspectives. The chapters are authoritative and easily readable with concise arguments unburdened by complex legal language. This is especially important for students and general readers aiming to gain some measure of understanding in the subject, without delving into its more complex underpinnings … The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law is an extremely well-written and intellectually stimulating book for anyone interested in human rights law.' Annette Thompson, The Birkbeck Law Review

Human rights are considered one of the big ideas of the early twenty-first century. This book presents in an authoritative and readable form the variety of platforms on which human rights law is practiced today, reflecting also on the dynamic inter-relationships that exist between these various levels. The collection has a critical edge. The chapters engage with how human rights law has developed in its various subfields, what (if anything) has been achieved and at what cost, in terms of expected or produced unexpected side-effects. The authors pass judgment about the consistency, efficacy and success of human rights law (set against the standards of the field itself or other external goals). Written by world-class academics, this Companion will be essential reading for students and scholars of human rights law.

Introduction Conor Gearty and Costas Douzinas
Part I. All Kinds of Everyone: 1. 'Framing the project' of international human rights law: reflections on the dysfunctional 'family' of the Universal Declaration Anna Grear
2. Restoring the 'human' in 'human rights' - personhood and doctrinal innovation in the UN disability convention Gerard Quinn with Anna Arstein-Kerslake
3. The poverty of (rights) jurisprudence Costas Douzinas
Part II. Interconnections: 4. Foundations beyond law Florian Hoffmann
5. The interdisciplinarity of human rights Abdullahi A. An-Nacim
6. Atrocity, law, humanity: punishing human rights violators Gerry Simpson
7. Violence in the name of human rights Simon Chesterman
8. Reinventing human rights in an era of hyper-globalisation: a few wayside remarks Upendra Baxi
Part III. Platforms: 9. Reconstituting the universal: human rights as a regional idea Chaloka Beyani
10. The embryonic sovereign and the biological citizen: the biopolitics of reproductive rights Patrick Hanafin
11. Spoils for which victor? Human rights within the democratic state Conor Gearty
12. Devoluted human rights Chris Himsworth
13. Does enforcement matter? Gerd Oberleitner
Part IV. Pressures: 14. Winners and others: accounting for international law's favourites Margot E. Salomon
15. Resisting panic: lessons about the role of human rights during the long decade after 9/11 Martin Scheinin
16. What's in a name? The prohibitions on torture and ill treatment today Manfred Nowak
17. Do human rights treaties make enough of a difference? Samuel Moyn.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Human rights [JPVH], International relations [JPS]