Protecting Human Rights: Instruments and Institutions

This volume addresses two important issues surrounding human rights in both law and politics. First, it considers the content and form of human rights. What is and what is not to be counted as a human right, and what does it mean to identify a right as a human right? Secondly it considers the implementation of human rights. What are the most effective and legitimate means of promoting human rights? Both of these issues raise profound moral questions within legal and political philosophy. The contributions within this volume address the conceptual and moral issues deriving from the expansion of rights discourse and explore the variety of institutional mechanisms that may be adopted to protect and further human rights. At the same time, they illustrate the complex relationship between defining human rights and adopting particular modes of institutional implementation.