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Approaching Human Rights Law Philosophically: Reflections on Allen Buchanan, The Heart of Human Rights

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Abstract

I begin by summarizing some of the main features of Buchanan’s account. I argue next that his account gets no support from defeating his envisaged opponent, the Mirroring View of human rights. Then I discuss some general ideas about the concept and different conceptions of human rights before introducing my own conception and explaining why I think it has certain advantages over Buchanan’s. In particular, my account is better suited for the intellectual engagement with China that philosophers should contribute to and whose centrality Buchanan recognizes.

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References

  • Stephen Angle, Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy (Cambridge: Polity, 2012).

  • Charles Beitz, The Idea of Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

  • Allen Buchanan, The Heart of Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

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  • Joshua Cohen, ‘Is There a Human Right to Democracy?’, in Christine Sypnowich (ed.), The Egalitarian Conscience: Essays in Honor of G. A. Cohen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 226–49.

  • James Griffin, On Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

  • Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (New York: Harper and Row, 1963).

  • Mathias Risse, On Global Justice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012a).

  • Mathias Risse, Global Political Philosophy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012b).

  • Henry Rosemont, ‘Why Take Rights Seriously? A Confucian Critique’, in L. S. Rouner (ed.), Human Rights and the World’s Religions (South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994).

  • TM Scanlon, ‘Rights, Goals, and Fairness’, in Scanlon, The Difficulty of Tolerance: Essays in Political Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 26–42.

  • Amartya Sen, ‘Elements of a Theory of Human Rights’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 32(4) (2004): 315–356.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard University, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Mathias Risse

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  1. Mathias Risse
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Correspondence to Mathias Risse.

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Risse, M. Approaching Human Rights Law Philosophically: Reflections on Allen Buchanan, The Heart of Human Rights . Law and Philos 36, 169–190 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-016-9281-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-016-9281-1

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