Human Rights Without Foundations
21 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2007
Date Written: March 2007
Abstract
Using the accounts of Gewirth and Griffin as examples, the article criticises accounts of human rights as those are understood in human rights practices, which regard them as rights all human beings have in virtue of their humanity. Instead it suggests that (with Rawls) human rights set the limits to the sovereignty of the state, but criticises Rawls conflation of sovereignty with legitimate authority. The resulting conception takes human rights, like other rights, to be contingent on social conditions, and in particular on the nature of the international system.
Keywords: Jurisprudence, Human Rights
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Raz, Joseph, Human Rights Without Foundations (March 2007). Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 14/2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=999874 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.999874
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