In Defense of Social and Economic Human Rights: An Intellectual History, 1940 to the Present

Human Rights › Law › Monthly List of Titles published under HK and UK Jurisdictions

In Defense of Social and Economic Human Rights: An Intellectual History, 1940 to the Present

By Christian Olaf Christiansen
Cambridge University Press November 2025

Specifications

ISBN-13
9781009551410
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication
November 2025
Format
Hardback
Jurisdiction
U.K. ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction: human rights and distributive justice

Part I. Internationalizing Human Rights
1. War aims: Ralph Bunche, H. G. Wells and 'world social democracy'
2. A 'Just share in social progress:' revisiting Hersch Lauterpacht
3. Bridging the cold war divide: Ralph Bunche, Gunnar Myrdal and Moses Moskowitz advocating rights in the 1950s

Part II. Criticizing Global Inequalities Through Human Rights
4. Deploying human rights against global inequalities in the 1960s: catholics and pan Africanists
5. The 'Widening gap' as a threat to human rights: Manouchehr Ganji

Part III. Legitimizing Human Rights
6. The derailment of a dream: Amartya Sen and the Sisyphean task of defending rights

Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Selected bibliography
Index
HKD 1,197.95 −3%
HKD 1,235.00

Inclusive of HK delivery

Ready to ship
Delivery Time: around 4-5 weeks
Extra 10 working days if shipping address outside Hong Kong
  • Free HK shipping over HK$1,000
  • International shipping to 35+ countries
Order Form
Save

Recommended

You may also be interested in these books:

More titles from Law

View all
Democracy, Protest and the Law: Defending a Democratic Right
Routledge

Democracy, Protest and the Law: Defending a Democratic Right

Michael Head
HKD 542.10
The Cambridge History of International Law, Volume 1: The Historiography of International Law
Cambridge University Press

The Cambridge History of International Law, Volume 1: The Historiography of International Law

Randall Lesaffer; Anne Peters
HKD 1,513.20
The Conduct of International Arbitration Proceedings
Edward Elgar Publishing

The Conduct of International Arbitration Proceedings

Yves Derains
HKD 2,168.92
Subsidiarity, Legitimacy, and the European Court of Human Rights ` New
Oxford University Press

Subsidiarity, Legitimacy, and the European Court of Human Rights `

Reto Walther
HKD 1,324.05
Investment Migration in Europe and the World: Current Issues
Hart Publishing

Investment Migration in Europe and the World: Current Issues

Professor Dr. Dimitry Kochenov; Madeleine Sumption; Martijn van den Brink
HKD 1,387.10
Labour and Employment Compliance in Saudi Arabia 7th Edition
Kluwer Law International

Labour and Employment Compliance in Saudi Arabia 7th Edition

Sara Khoja; Sarit Thomas
HKD 711.98