Article: Four Challenges Confronting the Concept of Universal Human Rights

Eric D. Blumenson 

Suffolk University Law School

February 15, 2014

Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 14-6

Abstract:

This essay identifies four claims that together underpin the idea of universal human rights and elucidates the most serious challenges confronting them. Consistent with its appellation, all human rights purport to be (1) universal, in that they apply everywhere, binding every society regardless of its laws and mores; (2) human, in that they belong equally to every human being regardless of her character, social standing, or other individual attributes; (3) rights, in that they assert the priority of certain individual interests over the majority’s wishes or welfare; (4) to a specified liberty or entitlement that serves to safeguard such a fundamental interest. The aim of this essay is to render these four human rights claims and the challenges asserted against them as precisely as they can be, so that the positions of all sides are made as explicit and transparent as possible. In a book to follow, I address these critiques in detail.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 25

Disponível em: <http://ssrn.com/abstract=2394917>. Acesso em 5 mar. 2014.