In defense of economic and social human rights : an intellectual history, 1940 to the present / Christian Olaf Christiansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Christiansen, Christian, Author.

Series:

Human rights in history.

Human rights in history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human rights--History--20th century.

Human rights.

Human rights--History--21st century.

Human rights--Economic aspects.

Human rights--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 253 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

Breaking new ground in the intellectual history of economic and social human rights, Christian Olaf Christiansen traces their justification from the outset of World War II until the present day. Featuring a series of fascinating thinkers, from political scientists to Popes, this is the first book to comprehensively map the key arguments made in defense of human rights and how they connect to ideas of social and redistributive justice. Christiansen traces this intellectual history from a first phase devoted to internationalizing these rights, a second phase of their unprecedented legitimacy deployed to criticize global inequality, to a third phase of a continued quest to secure their legitimacy once and for all. Engaging with the newest scholarship and building a bridge to political philosophy as well as global inequality studies, it facilitates a much-needed novel and nuanced history of rights-rights we should still consider defending today.

Contents:

Human Rights and Distributive Justice

Part 1. Internationalizing Human Rights

Part 2. Criticizing Global Inequalities Through Human Rights

Part 3. Legitimizing Human Rights

Epilogue.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 14 Nov 2025).

ISBN:

1-009-55142-6

1-009-55143-4

1-009-55139-6