The Subject of Human Rights

Danielle Celermajer, Alexandre Lefebvre

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781503613713, 9781503613195
• eBook ISBN: 9781503613720
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Subject of Human Rights is the first book to systematically address the "human" part of "human rights." Drawing on the finest thinking in political theory, cultural studies, history, law, anthropology, and literary studies, this volume examines how human rights—as discourse, law, and practice—shape how we understand humanity and human beings. It asks how the humanness that the human rights idea seeks to protect and promote is experienced.

The essays in this volume consider how human rights norms and practices affect the way we relate to ourselves, to other people, and to the nonhuman world. They investigate what kinds of institutions and actors are subjected to human rights and are charged with respecting their demands and realizing their aspirations. And they explore how human rights shape and even create the very subjects they seek to protect. Through critical reflection on these issues, The Subject of Human Rights suggests ways in which we might reimagine the relationship between human rights and subjectivity with a view to benefiting human rights and subjects alike.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Series Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: Bringing the Subject of Human Rights into Focus
• Part I: Who is the Subject of Human Rights?
• Part II: Who is Subject to Human Rights?
• Part III: How do Human Rights Make Subjects?
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index
• Series List