The Heart of Human Rights

Allen Buchanan

First in-depth examination of the moral foundations of the international legal human rights system.
Challenges common assumptions in the philosophical literature about the relationship between moral human rights and international legal human rights.
Shows that the international legal human rights system is not grounded in excessively individualistic moral assumptions.
Goes beyond scrutiny of international legal human rights norms to assess the legitimacy of the institutions that create and implement them.
Critically evaluates tensions between the commitment to constitutional democracy and the commitment to the authority of international human rights law, expanding the agenda for research on cosmopolitan theories of global justice.

The Heart of Human Rights

Allen Buchanan

Description

This is the first attempt to provide an in-depth moral assessment of the heart of the modern human rights enterprise: the system of international legal human rights. It is international human rights law—not any philosophical theory of moral human rights or any "folk" conception of moral human rights—that serves as the lingua franca of modern human rights practice. Yet contemporary philosophers have had little to say about international legal human rights. They have tended to assume, rather than to argue, that international legal human rights, if morally justified, must mirror or at least help realize moral human rights. But this assumption is mistaken. International legal human rights, like many other legal rights, can be justified by several different types of moral considerations, of which the need to realize a corresponding moral right is only one.

Further, this volume shows that some of the most important international legal human rights cannot be adequately justified by appeal to corresponding moral human rights. The problem is that the content of these international legal human rights—the full set of correlative duties—is much broader than can be justified by appealing to the morally important interests of any individual. In addition, it is necessary to examine the legitimacy of the institutions that create, interpret, and implement international human rights law and to defend the claim that international human rights law should "trump" the domestic law of even the most admirable constitutional democracies.

The Heart of Human Rights

Allen Buchanan

Acknowledgements
Preface
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: A Pluralistic Justificatory Methodology for Human Rights
Chapter Three: The Task of Justification
Chapter Four: The Case for a System of International Legal Human Rights
Chapter Five: An Ecological View of The Legitimacy of International Legal Human Rights Institutions
Chapter Six: The Problematic Supremacy of International Human Rights Law
Chapter Seven: The Challenge of Ethical Pluralism
Chapter Eight: Conclusions
Appendix One: Non-Rights Norms in Major Human Rights Documents
Appendix Two: Results of the Investigation
Index

The Heart of Human Rights

Allen Buchanan

Author Information

Allen Buchanan, James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law, Duke University

Allen Buchanan is the author of eleven books and over one hundred-fifty articles. His work is mainly in Political Philosophy, Philosophy of International Law, and Bioethics. He currently divides his time between Duke University, King's College London Dickson Poon School of Law, and the University of Arizona.

The Heart of Human Rights

Allen Buchanan

Reviews and Awards

"Buchanan's The Heart of Human Rights is a valuable contribution, moving beyond the debate between the political and the orthodox conception and inviting philosophers to engage with the task of justifying human rights law. We should accept his invitation, his book is as an essential reference in the philosophy of human rights law." - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Allen Buchanan's book is an impressive addition to the contemporary philosophical discussions about human rights...The most significant philosophical contribution that Buchanan makes is undoubtedly his dismissal of the "orthodox" philosophical accounts of human rights. Buchanan powerfully forces philosophers of human rights, especially those who hold the orthodox view, to confront the problem of institutional justification." - International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs

"...it makes an indispensable contribution to human rights theory...Buchanan both broadens our understanding of the international human rights regime by considering what other interests and values it serves beyond this core of moral human rights, and provides a promising normative account of the legal norms and institutions of this system." - Philosophy in Review