Subjects:

Human Rights and Civil Liberties

Contents:

Part I: Nature and Development: The concept of human rights in international law, Anthony D'Amato

A multi-dimensional concept of human rights in international law, Sampong Sacharitkul

Human rights geneology, Ruti Teitel.

Part II: Politics: The ideology of human rights, Makau wa Mutua

International human rights and cultural relativism, Fernando R. Teson

International human rights and feminism: when discourses meet, Karen Engle.

Part III: Enforcement and Supervision: How is international human rights law enforced?, Harold Hongju Koh

Towards a theory of effective supranational adjudication, Laurence R. Helfer and Anne-Marie Slaughter

Norm making and supervision in international human rights: reflections on institutional order, Theodor Meron.

Part IV: Exceptions: Reservations to human rights treaties: time for innovation and reform, William A. Schabas

Derogations under Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights, R. St. J. MacDonald.

Part V: Regional Supervision: Reflections on regional human rights law, Gabriel M. Wilner

Consensus, coherence and the European Convention on Human Rights, Laurence R. Helfer.

Part VI: Globalization: Globalization and the convergence of values, Alex Y. Seita

Globalization and human rights, Robert McCorquodale with Richard Fairbrother.

International law is a social construct crafted by human endeavour to achieve or at least contribute to the achievement of goals perceived to be valuable or necessary to effective social relations. In effect, international law is no more than a facilitative process and so cannot have answers and conclusions of its own other than what lies within the ambitions of those who define the limits of the process.

The essays collected together here reveal how international law facilitates the achievement of the long standing ambition of turning human rights ideals and rhetoric into reality.