International Human Rights Law: Returning to Universal Principles - Softcover

Gibney, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742556301 ISBN 13: 9780742556300

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008

Synopsis

This clear and compelling book challenges the reader to rethink the entire basis for human rights, providing a vastly different vision of a way forward out of our current quagmire. Mark Gibney persuasively advocates for a much broader reading of the law on state responsibility, arguing that current law misses most of the ways in which states fail to protect human rights. He also challenges the notion adopted by all states that human rights obligations extend no farther than their own territorial borders by critiquing cases from the U.S. Supreme Court, the International Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights. Finally, the author takes up the issue of human rights enforcement. Under the current system, the state that carries out human rights violations is expected to enforce this law against itself! Decades of sweeping human rights violations have shown that this system of protection simply cannot work. Calling for other measures to provide victims the 'effective remedy' that international human rights law promises, Gibney sets forth a series of practical steps that would profoundly change the nature of human rights protection.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark Gibney is Belk Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Review:

Mark Gibney is a passionate and compassionate advocate of the universality of international human rights law. Using clear, accessible language and grounding himself in key legal cases, he urges states, transnational corporations, and international organizations to take responsibility for the human rights violations they cause, regardless of where those violations occur. This book will be popular among students and others who are frustrated with the inattention of domestic and international law to transnational abuses of human rights. (Howard-Hassmann, Rhoda E.)

Gibney presents critical issues in international human rights law in language which makes these topics accessible to the general public....Highly recommended. (Choice 2008)

In clear prose and with systematic argument, Mark Gibney suggests steps for a more serious approach to protecting human rights as already defined in international law. His is a stimulating and important contribution for the age of globalization. (David P. Forsythe)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0742556301
• ISBN 13: 9780742556300
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 162