Universal Human Rights: Moral Order in a Divided World

(Paperback)

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Universal Human Rights brings new clarity to the important and highly contested concept universal human rights. The Charter of the United Nations commits nearly all nations of the world to promote, to realize and take action to achieve human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, yet this formal consensus masks an underlying confusion about the philosophical basis and practical implications of rights in a world made up of radically different national communities. This collection of essays explores the foundations of universal human rights in four sections devoted to their nature, application, enforcement and limits, concluding that shared rights help to constitute a universal human community, which supports local customs and separate state sovereignty. Rights protect the benefits of cultural diversity, while recognizing the universal dignity that every human life deserves. The eleven contributors to this volume demonstrate from their very different perspectives how human rights can help to bring moral order to an otherwise divided world.

Reviews

Although human rights discourse is becoming the recognized lingua franca of international relations, differences of justification, interpretation, application and enforcement abound. This set of original essays throws fresh light on these differences while clearly exemplifying the greater importance of the basic similarities that all parties to the debate share. -- Richard T. De George, University Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas
Nine philosophers and two legal scholars contribute articles to this volume, and severla contribute significantly to this discussion. * Philosophy in Review *
This impressive and timely volume brings together some of the most hotly-debated issues in the philosophical discourse on human rights and offers new ways of thinking about them. The essays raise all the hard questions on the theory and practice of human rights, providing wide-ranging and sharply contested arguments. The book is a must for anyone interested in the normative and institutional issues of human rights and their global dimensions. -- Deen Chatterjee, University of Utah

Although human rights discourse is becoming the recognized lingua franca of international relations, differences of justification, interpretation, application and enforcement abound. This set of original essays throws fresh light on these differences while clearly
exemplifying the greater importance of the basic similarities that all parties to the debate share.

Author Bio

David A. Reidy is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Tennessee.

Mortimer N. S. Sellers is Regents Professor of the University System of Maryland and director of the Center for International & Comparative Law.