Rescuing Human Rights Law from International Legalism and Its Critics

48 Pages Posted: 8 Oct 2014 Last revised: 18 Nov 2015

See all articles by Geoff Dancy

Geoff Dancy

University of Toronto

Christopher J. Fariss

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Department of Political Science

Date Written: November 18, 2015

Abstract

New Realist critics of international law, like many international relations realists who came before, are taking aim at human rights for its hopeless legalism. These critics rely on a regulative model that narrowly conceives of human rights laws as potentially enforceable rules without teeth. The article defines and elaborates an alternative constitutive model of human rights law, which understands the role of law as being both constituted by, and generative of, political interactions. This understanding is superior to legalist and regulative models because it better describes a number of rights-related phenomena observed in the world.

Suggested Citation

Dancy, Geoff and Fariss, Christopher J., Rescuing Human Rights Law from International Legalism and Its Critics (November 18, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2506144 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2506144

Geoff Dancy

University of Toronto ( email )

105 St George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8
Canada

Christopher J. Fariss (Contact Author)

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - Department of Political Science ( email )

Ann Arbor, MI 48109
United States

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