Interrogating the Morality of Human Rights: (Elgar Studies in Human Rights)

This forward-thinking book illustrates the complexities of the morality of human rights. Emphasising the role of human rights as the only true global political morality to arise since the Second World War, chapters explore its role as applied to often controversial issues, such as capital punishment, the exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriage and criminal abortion bans. Clarifying and cross-examining the morality of human rights, Michael J. Perry discusses their connection to moral equality and moral freedom, as well as exploring the significance of anti-poverty human rights. This illuminating book concludes with an explanation as to why the morality of human rights is acutely relevant to challenges faced by humanity in the modern era. In particular, the challenges of growing economic inequality and climate change are emphasised as having profound relevance to the morality of human rights. Interrogating the Morality of Human Rights will be of great benefit to both undergraduate and graduate students who are contemplating the idea of human rights and their morality within their studies. Professors and academics with cause to study and research human rights would also find it to be of interest, particularly those in the field of legal scholarship.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction: Interrogating the morality of human rights – Introductory overview PART I THE MORALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS 1. Preliminary questions 2. The most fundamental question: What justification, if any? PART II TWO FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS: MORAL EQUALITY AND MORAL FREEDOM 3. The human right to moral equality and the constitutional right to equal protection 4. The human right to moral freedom and the constitutional right of privacy PART III THREE HUMAN-RIGHTS-BASED CONTROVERSIES: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, ABORTION, AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE 5. Capital punishment as a contested human rights issue 6. Criminalizing abortion as a contested human rights issue 7. Excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage as a contested human rights issue 8. Who decides? PART IV ANTIPOVERTY RIGHTS—AND VULNERABILITY THEORY 9. Poverty as a human rights issue 10 Vulnerability theory and the morality of human rights: Complementary, not competitive Conclusion: Human rights inflation? Extreme economic inequality and global warming as human rights issues Appendix. Index

About the Author :
Michael J. Perry, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law, US

Review :
‘The radical nature of Michael Perry’s “agapaistic” conceptualization of human rights seems at once intuitive, but somehow to have eluded the vast majority of commentators, particularly those with a legal background. Students and seasoned scholars alike will benefit from this return to the foundational ideas and claims of the human rights idea.’ ‘Few scholars have understood the philosophy and application of human rights as well as Michael Perry. In this volume, with his customary clarity and care, Perry has boiled his insights down to their essence and demonstrated their utility in dealing with some of the most controversial moral issues of our time. It is a capstone work, indispensable reading for anyone who cares about the subject.’ ‘All interested in human rights in both the international and US contexts should read this book. It is a creative treatment of legal and philosophical approaches. Perry’s stress on the spirit of solidarity as key to promoting human rights is a powerful contribution.’ ‘Michael Perry’s lifelong project has been to give a philosophical account of human rights, beginning with its foundational basis and ending with specific prescriptions for controversial cases. His writing combines spectacular intellectual ambition, moral urgency, and rigor in a way that should be a model for all scholars.’