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

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.

Introduction Conor Gearty and Costas Douzinas; Part I. Finding Foundations: 1. On human rights: two simple remarks Jean-Luc Nancy (translated by Gilbert Leung); 2. Human rights: the necessary quest for foundations Conor Gearty; 3. Against human rights: liberty in the western tradition John Milbank; 4. Religious faith and human rights Rowan Williams; Part II. Law, Rights and Revolution: 5. Philosophy and the right to resistance Costas Douzinas; 6. On a radical politics for human rights Illan Rua Wall; 7. Fanon today Drucilla Cornell; 8. Race and the value of the human Paul Gilroy; Part III. Rights, Justice, Politics: 9. From 'human rights' to 'life rights' Walter D. Mignolo; 10. Democracy, human rights and cosmopolitanism: an agonistic approach Chantal Mouffe; 11. Plural cosmopolitanisms and the origins of human rights Samuel Moyn; Part IV. Rights and Power: 12. Second-generation rights as biopolitical rights Pheng Cheah; 13. History, normativity, and rights Paul Patton; 14. 'All of us without exception': Sartre, Rancière, and the cause of the Other Bruce Robbins; 15. However incompletely, human Joseph R. Slaughter; 16. Welcome to the 'spiritual kingdom of animals' Slavoj Žižek.

Costas Douzinas is Professor of Law and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities. He is a leading scholar in the field of the critical study of human rights.
Conor Gearty is Professor of Human Rights Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Director of the LSE's Institute of Public Affairs. He is a specialist in UK human rights law, as well as in terrorism law and civil liberties.