Abstract
The settlement of the Second World War yielded two important changes in the normative order of international relations. These are the prohibition of war except in self-defence, expressed in the UN Charter and the limitation of sovereignty by a common set of protections of individuals, expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Looked at in historical perspective, these innovations are two dimensions of a single movement - a collective effort at the global level to impose discipline on the external and internal behaviour of states. Neither innovation lacks ambition, but of the two, the more far-reaching is certainly the doctrine of human rights. It aims to bring the domestic conduct of governments under agreed international norms - to define and establish ‘a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations’ (UDHR, Preamble) to which the organized international community can hold individual governments accountable.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy |
Publisher | wiley |
Pages | 628-637 |
Number of pages | 10 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781405177245 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781405136532 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2008 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Arts and Humanities
Keywords
- Economic rights
- Idea of a human right
- International toleration
- Practice of human rights