0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Legal profession > Legal ethics & professional conduct

Not currently available

On Human Rights (Paperback) Loot Price: R764
Discovery Miles 7 640

On Human Rights (Paperback)

James Griffin

 (sign in to rate)
Loot Price R764 Discovery Miles 7 640 | Repayment Terms: R72 pm x 12*

Bookmark and Share

Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.

What is a human right? How can we tell whether a proposed human right really is one? How do we establish the content of particular human rights, and how do we resolve conflicts between them? These are pressing questions for philosophers, political theorists, jurisprudents, international lawyers, and activists. James Griffin offers answers in his compelling new investigation of the foundations of human rights.
First, On Human Rights traces the idea of a natural right from its origin in the late Middle Ages, when the rights were seen as deriving from natural laws, through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the original theological background was progressively dropped and 'natural law' emptied of most of its original meaning. By the end of the Enlightenment, the term "human rights" (droits de l'homme) appeared, marking the purge of the theological background. But the Enlightenment, in putting nothing in its place, left us with an unsatisfactory, incomplete idea of a human right.
Griffin shows how the language of human rights has become debased. There are scarcely any accepted criteria, either in the academic or the public sphere, for correct use of the term. He takes on the task of showing the way towards a determinate concept of human rights, based on their relation to the human status that we all share. He works from certain paradigm cases, such as freedom of expression and freedom of worship, to more disputed cases such as welfare rights--for instance the idea of a human right to health. His goal is a substantive account of human rights--an account with enough content to tell us whether proposed rights really are rights. Griffin emphasizes the practical as well as theoretical urgency of this goal: as the United Nations recognized in 1948 with its Universal Declaration, the idea of human rights has considerable power to improve the lot of humanity around the world.
We can't do without the idea of human rights, and we need to get clear about it. It is our job now--the job of this book--to influence and develop the unsettled discourse of human rights so as to complete the incomplete idea.

General

Imprint: Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Release date: August 2009
First published: October 2009
Authors: James Griffin
Dimensions: 232 x 157 x 27mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 339
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-957310-3
Categories: Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Legal profession > Legal ethics & professional conduct
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > General
Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > General
Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
LSN: 0-19-957310-7
Barcode: 9780199573103

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

Partners