LAWS 2105C Human Rights and Social Justice

The American and French revolutions enshrined a new language of universal rights in the founding of their new states, but these ideas matured in a context of colonial expansion and imperial rule. Many of the readings for this class point out that acknowledging this context is necessary for understanding the limits of human rights language. Choose at least two of the course readings and describe how they explain the legal limits of human rights for indigenous peoples, people in the Global South, or ethnic/religious minority groups.

 

While the language of universal human rights can be a valuable resource for ensuring individual political or civil freedoms, most people experience oppression as members of groups. Describe Iris Marion Young’s five “faces” of oppression and discuss some of the ways her typology compares with one or more other readings covered in the course on the topic of social justice.

 

In the Epilogue of Eichmann in Jerusalem, Arendt uses the Eichmann trial to discuss the possible ways the international community could or should respond to the tragedy of the Holocaust. What is her suggestion? How does it improve upon the Nuremburg trials? And how does her recognition of the “right to have rights” fit into this argument?

 

In Moyn’s chapter on human rights in the era of neoliberalism, he argues that while human rights may not have helped justify neoliberal policies, the history of Western human rights has done nothing to slow down the effects of neoliberal capitalism. Using two or more of the course readings, discuss some of the ways human rights have been compatible (or not) with the development of modern (neoliberal) capitalism.