Introduction: Securing Human Rights Through Legislation

Abstract

This article is reprinted from the Introduction to Legislated Rights: Securing Human Rights through Legislation, jointly authored by Grégoire Webber, Paul Yowell, Richard Ekins, Maris Köpcke, Bradley W. Miller, and Francisco J. Urbina, published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. The important aspects of human well-being outlined in human rights instruments and constitutional bills of rights can only be adequately secured as and when they are rendered the object of specific rights and corresponding duties. It is often assumed that the main responsibility for specifying the content of such genuine rights lies with courts. The book argues against this assumption, by showing how legislatures can and should be at the centre of the practice of human rights. It explores how and why legislatures, being strategically placed within a system of positive law, can help realise human rights through modes of protection that courts cannot provide by way of judicial review.

This introductory chapter by Grégoire Webber and Paul Yowell introduces four theses animating human rights law and scholarship. It defends four counter-theses that motivate the book’s main arguments and explores the deep interconnectedness between human rights and positive law,
before