The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law (Cambridge Companions to Law)

Cambridge University Press, 11/22/2012
EAN 9781107602359, ISBN10: 1107602351

Paperback, 372 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English

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.

'… 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