Overview

What do human rights mean in an age of counter-terrorism? How does globalization affect the protection of human rights? Can human rights contribute to the eradication of hunger and the promotion of education for all? This book presents a wide-ranging survey of the scope and significance of international human rights law. Arranged thematically in alphabetical format, it side-steps the traditional categories of human rights law, to investigate rights in the specific contexts in which they are invoked, debated, and considered. Entries are included on traditional topics such as children, the death penalty, and housing, along with newer issues such as culture, sexuality, and terrorism. Each entry introduces key concepts, norms and debates, and additionally contains suggestions for further reading. Throughout, the aim is to invite reflection on human rights in a way that avoids idealization. For the authors, international human rights law is a process or tool, which is neither inherently beneficent nor essentially problematic, but always potentially both. This book provides the reader with the necessary background to understand, evaluate and, above all, deploy human rights as a strategy for change in the contemporary world.

Full Product Details

9780198764137

Table of Contents

Reviews

`...a rich and informed survey of debates, problems and illustrations of how human rights penetrate all spheres of life...an up-to-date survey of human rights 'issues', a balanced, yet straight-forward and critical account of human rights norms, institutions and debates, a brilliant tool for teaching...and above all a well argued proof of the power of human rights in our contemporary world...In weaving together different aspects and demonstrating how human rights are important in all of them the authors...succeed in opening up new avenues to connect human rights with processes and developments that have long evaded scrutiny from the point of view of human rights scholarship. Marks and Clapham have written the book in an accessible style...yet the authority in the presentation and command of the subject is evident... thoughtful and reflective...goes beyond a traditional presentation of international human rights law...' Gerd Oberleitner, Modern Law Review, November 2006 `An excellent scholarly and introductory guide for graduate and doctoral students as well as practitioners, the Marks and Clapham work is also accessible to anyone interested in approaching the contemporary world through the lenses of human rights thought and being aware of the underlying scholarly debates that shape the discipline. ' Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral, Human Rights Quarterly

..one book, twenty-eight short essays on human rights issues in alphabetical order, one voice, and two international legal scholars. She, the pure academician from Cambridge University with a marked taste for political thought, whose post-modernist doctoral inquiry into democratic governance-The Riddle of All Constitutions-gained her wide doctrinal respect that her later work has not diminished. He, the Ph.D. from E.U.I. in Florence who accepted the call of Amnesty International to be their representative before the United Nations in New York prior to becoming a professor at the GIIS in Geneva in the late 1990s and who continues to produce a remarkable record of scholarly writings, including his latest, the monumental Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors. Human Rights Quarterly This is human rights law (and beyond) as seen by to young reputed cosmopolitan legal scholars in the early stages of the twenty-first century. Human Rights Quarterly a rich and informed survey of debates, problems and illustrations of how human rights penetrate all spheres of life will fascinate people from many different disciplines. Modern Law Review An excellent scholarly and introductory guide for graduate and doctoral students as well as practitioners[and]...also accessible to anyone interested in approaching the contemporary world through the lenses of human rights...this comprehensive critical approach to human rights is bound to have future editions in the years to come.

Author Information

Andrew Clapham is Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva. Susan Marks is University Lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available