Judgment

Judgment

What Are Human Rights? Four Schools of Thought

Document Type : Scientific

Authors
1 Professor at Law and Social Sciences Faculty of Tabriz University
2 Ph.D Student of Public Law at Tabriz University
Abstract
A close reading of academic literature reveals that we do not all conceive of human rights in the same way. This contribution proposes that "natural scholars" conceive of human rights as given; "deliberative scholars" as agreed upon; "protest scholars" as fought for, and "discourse scholars" as talked about. The position of each of these four schools on the foundation, universality, possible realization, and legal embodiment of human rights is reviewed, as well as is the schools' faith, or lack thereof, in human rights. Quotations from academic texts illustrate how the four school model cuts across the academic disciplines with examples drawn from philosophy, politics, law, and anthropology.
Keywords

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Volume 18, Issue 93
Summer 2018
Pages 139-165

  • Receive Date 18 October 2017
  • Revise Date 01 December 2017
  • Accept Date 16 May 2018