The Meanings of Rights: The Philosophy and Social Theory of Human Rights

by Costas Douzinas (Editor), Conor Gearty (Editor)

Does the apparent victory, universality and ubiquity of the idea of rights indicate that such rights have transcended all conflicts of interests and moved beyond the presumption that it is the clash of ideas that drives culture? Or has the rhetorical triumph of rights not been replicated in reality? The contributors to this book answer these questions in the context of an increasing wealth gap between the metropolitan elites and the rest, a chasm in income and chances between the rich and the poor, and walls which divide the comfortable middle classes from the 'underclass'. Why do these inequalities persist in our supposed human rights-abiding societies? In seeking to address the foundations, genealogies, meaning and impact of rights, this book captures some of the energy, breadth, power and paradoxes that make deployment of the language of human rights such an essential but changeable part of so many of our contemporary discourses.

340 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 2014

About the author

Costas Douzinas is Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and Professor of Law at Birkbeck, University of London.