Description
Book SynopsisThe Sovereignty of Human Rights advances a legal theory of international human rights that defines their nature and purpose in relation to the structure and operation of international law. Professor Macklem argues that the mission of international human rights law is to mitigate adverse consequences produced by the international legal deployment of sovereignty to structure global politics into an international legal order. The book contrasts this legal conception of international human rights with moral conceptions that conceive of human rights as instruments that protect universal features of what it means to be a human being. The book also takes issue with political conceptions of international human rights that focus on the function or role that human rights plays in global political discourse. It demonstrates that human rights traditionally thought to lie at the margins of international human rights law - minority rights, indigenous rights, the right of self-determination, social rights, labor rights, and the right to development - are central to the normative architecture of the field.
Trade ReviewMacklem offers his readers a well-articulated argument that advances discourse on the subject. He also gives them a fascinating, in-depth review of the origination of workers rights, minority and indigenous rights, the right of self-determination and the right to development, which supports his approach. * Sarah Frost, Israel Law Review *
Professor Macklem's book makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature on the role of international human rights law in the international legal order... [his] argument is highly original. * Anna John, Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (ZaöRV) *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; 1. Field Missions ; Human Rights as Moral Concepts ; Human Rights as Political Concepts ; Human Rights as Legal Concepts ; The Plan of the Book ; 2. Sovereignty and Structure ; Sovereignty and its Exercise ; Between the National and International ; Sovereignty and its Distribution ; 3. Human Rights: Three Generations or One? ; Generations as Chronological Categories ; Generations as Analytical Categories ; Civil and Political Rights as Monitors of Sovereignty's Exercise ; Social and Economic Rights as Monitors of Sovereignty's Exercise ; 4. International Law at Work ; Labor Rights as Instrumental Rights ; Labor Rights as Universal Rights ; Labor Rights and the Structure of International Law ; 5. The Ambiguous Appeal of Minority Rights ; The Moral Ambiguities of Minority Rights ; The Political Ambiguities of Minority Rights ; The Interdependence of Sovereignty and Minority Protection ; 6. International Indigenous Recognition ; Indigenous Territories and the Acquisition of Sovereignty ; Indigenous Recognition and the International Labour Organization ; Indigenous Recognition and the United Nations ; The Purpose of International Indigenous Rights ; 7. Self-Determination in Three Movements ; Self-Determination and the Legality of Colonialism ; The Many Paradoxes of Self-Determination ; Bridging International Law and Distributive Justice ; 8. Global Poverty and the Right to Development ; The Emergence of the Right ; Implementing the Right ; From Global Poverty to International Law ; The Right to Development and the Rise and Fall of Colonialism ; Bibliography ; Index
