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Eric A. Posner: The Twilight of Human Rights Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014

Publication at Faculty of Law |
2015

Abstract

The book "The Twilight of Human Rights Law", written by an American legal scholar Eric Posne contributes to the ongoing discussion of where human rights are on the international level and where they are heading. During the last decades international human rights law have expanded significantly as many countries have committed themselves to human rights.

This also led to the proliferation of both human rights treaties and their institutions. But at the same time human rights continue to be commonly violated with unchanged intensity and major violators often remain unaffected.

Therefore, human rights stop to be an ultimate path to promote justice and prosperity of individuals and there are raising voices pointing out that international human rights law has reached a dead end. Posner strongly claims the latter point of view.

However, it is merely his starting point, since he goes further by presenting even more sceptical argument that human rights failed to fulfil its main objective, which is to improve the well-being of people.