Human Rights and Radical Political Philosophy

Human Rights and Radical Political Philosophy engages in a critique of international human rights law through readings of influential European philosophers. Roberto Buonamano explores novel and valuable perspectives on the conceptualization of human rights and their relationship to the modern State.

Taking the radical political philosophies of Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Luc Nancy as a starting point, Buonamano interrogates the commonly received meanings of foundational concepts such as rights, democracy, freedom, and the State. Within the ambit of genealogy, human rights are examined through Foucault''s analyses of governmentality and the subject of truth, and through Agamben’s political ontological theses. The book furthers this discussion by assessing Derrida’s deconstruction of the concepts of humanity, sovereignty, and democracy, as well as Nancy’s re-evaluation of the political in terms of non-subjective sovereignty and ‘being-in-common’.

Providing a more nuanced understanding of the role and theoretical premises of international human rights, this book is an enlightening read for students and scholars of legal theory and international human rights law. Followers of continental European political philosophy and legal theory will greatly benefit from this timely investigation of the ability of human rights to address some of the most consequential socio-political problems affecting modern societies.