Human Rights Law and the Marginalized Other - Softcover

Simmons, William Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107671531 ISBN 13: 9781107671539

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

This is a groundbreaking application of contemporary philosophy to human rights law that proposes several significant innovations for the progressive development of human rights. Drawing on the works of prominent “philosophers of the Other” including Emmanuel Levinas, Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak, Judith Butler, and most centrally the Argentine philosopher of liberation Enrique Dussel, this book develops an ethics based on concrete face-to-face relationships with the Marginalized Other. It proposes that this ethics should inspire a human rights law that is grounded in transcendental justice and framed from the perspective of marginalized groups. Such law would continuously deconstruct the original violence found in all human rights treaties and tribunals and promote preferential treatment for the marginalized. It would be especially attentive to such issues as access to justice, voice, representation, agency, and responsibility. This approach differs markedly from more conventional theories of human rights that prioritize the autonomy of the ego, state sovereignty, democracy, and/or equality.

About this title

About the Author

William Paul Simmons is Associate Professor of Political Science and founding director of the M.A. program in Social Justice and Human Rights at Arizona State University. His research is highly interdisciplinary, relying on theoretical, legal and empirical approaches to social justice and human rights issues. He is the author of An-Archy and Justice, co-editor of the forthcoming Localizing Human Rights: The US-Mexico Experience and author of numerous articles and book chapters including recent work offering the most comprehensive study to date of widespread sexual violence against migrant women. He has served as an international human rights consultant in the United States, China, Mexico and West Africa.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107671531
• ISBN 13: 9781107671539
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 268