European University Institute Library

Revisiting the origins of human rights, edited by Pamela Slotte and Miia Halme-Tuomisaari

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Revisiting the origins of human rights

bibliography

910826846

edited by Pamela Slotte and Miia Halme-Tuomisaari

"Did the history of human rights begin decades, centuries or even millennia ago? What constitutes this history? And what can we really learn from 'the textbook narrative' - the unilinear, forward-looking tale of progress and inevitable triumph authored primarily by Western philosophers, politicians and activists? Does such a distinguishable entity as 'the history of human rights' even exist, or are efforts to read evidence in past events of the later 'evolution' of human rights mere ideology? This book explores these questions through a collective effort by scholars of history, law, theology and anthropology. Rather than entities with an absolute, predefined 'essence', this book conceptualizes human rights as open-ended and ambiguous. It taps into recent 'revisionist' debates and asks: what do we really know of the history of human rights?"--, Provided by publisher

1. Revisiting the origins of human rights: introduction / Miia Halme-Tuomisaari and Pamela Slotte -- I. Foundations: Antiquity to the Enlightenment -- 2. Human rights in antiquity? Revisiting anachronism and Roman law / Jacob Giltaij and Kaius Tuori -- 3. Medieval natural rights discourse / Virpi Mäkinen -- 4. Human rights and the Thomist tradition / Annabel Brett -- II. Pluralities of Discourses and Rights: The Enlightenment and Single-issue Causes in the Nineteenth Century -- 5. Revolutionary rights / Lynn Hunt -- 6. Giuseppe Mazzini in (and beyond) the history of human rights / Samuel Moyn -- 7. Constituting the Imperial community: rights, common good, and authority in Britain's Atlantic empire, 1607-1815 / Lauren Benton and Aaron Slater -- 8. Human rights discourse in women's rights conventions in the United States, 1848-70 / Kathryn Kish Sklar -- 9. The peace movement and human rights / Martin Ceadel -- 10. Socialism and the language of rights: the origins and implications of economic rights / Gregory Claeys -- III. Institutional Practices and Relations of Rights: Toward the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- 11. André Mandelstam and the internationalization of human rights (1869-1949) / Dzovinar Kévonian -- 12. From League of Nations mandates to decolonization: a brief history of rights / Taina Tuori -- 13. 'Blessed are the peacemakers': Christian internationalism, ecumenical voices and the quest for human rights / Pamela Slotte -- 14. Lobbying for relevance: American internationalists, French civil libertarians and the UDHR / Miia Halme-Tuomisaari -- 15. The Cold War and the rise of an American conception of human rights, 1945-8 / Olivier Barsalou -- 16. Afterword / Conor Gearty