THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN RIGHTS: THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE
Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: NUNZIO ALI'Expected Learning Outcomes
The seminar aims to enable students to master the complexity surrounding the philosophical foundation of human rights. It alsooffers the possibility to gain a detailed knowledge regarding the application of human rights to questions particularly pressing inour days: the responsibility to protect, the cultural legitimacy of human rights in non-western contexts, the relation betweenhuman rights and armed conflicts.
Course Structure
The course presupposes active participation. Students are required to select at least one text from the reading list and present itto their colleagues. Classes will be run as seminars: it is expected that students read the material before class and participate inthe discussion of the material presented.
Required Prerequisites
Basic concepts of political theory
Attendance of Lessons
Attendance is mandatory as per course rules. Only 30% absences will be tolerated. To be included in the Teams group, please send an email with the name of the course.
Detailed Course Content
This course critically examines contemporary debates on human rights, addressing foundational issues, theoretical critiques, and emerging challenges. Topics include the right to have rights, humanitarian intervention, migration, health, feminism, democracy, socioeconomic justice, climate change, and animal rights. Discussions engage with philosophical and political perspectives, integrating diverse viewpoints. The course concludes with critical reassessments of universality, intersectionality, and the far right’s use of human rights language.
Textbook Information
Cruft R., Liao S. M., and Renzo M. (eds.) Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights Oxford University Press, 2015.
Sarah Fine and Lea Ypi (eds.) Migration in Political Theory. The Ethics of Movement and Membership. Oxford UP: 2016
L. Caranti, Kant’s Political Legacy. Human Rights, Peace. Progress, UWP, 2017
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction: General Remarks on Human Rights - J. Nickel https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights-human/ | |
| 2 | Foundational Issues - Caranti, L. “Human Rights. The Contemporary Debate” in L. Caranti, Kant’s Political Legacy. Human Rights, Peace. Progress, UWP, 2017, pp. 40-56.- Cruft R., Liao S. M., and Renzo M., “The Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. An Overview”, in Cruft R., Liao S. M., and Renzo M. (eds.) Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. Oxford UP: 2015, p.1-23. | |
| 3 | The Right to Have Rights - Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt Brace, 1951, Chapter 9, pp. 267-302 - Lacroix J, Pranchère J-Y. The ‘right to have rights’: Revisiting Hannah Arendt. In: Human Rights on Trial: A Genealogy of the Critique of Human Rights. Human Rights in History. Cambridge University Press; 2018:206-228.Assignment of material for in class presentations | |
| 4 | War and Right to Intervention I - Lecture: Prof. Corinna Mieth (Ruhr University Bochum): Ticking bombs and the human right not to be tortured. - Brecher, Bob. 2007. “Torture, Death, and Philosophy”. In _____Torture and the Ticking Bomb, Blackwell.- Steinhoff, Uwe. 2012. ‘LEGALIZING DEFENSIVE TORTURE’. Public Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1 pp. 19-32. | |
| 5 | War and Right to Intervention II - Lecture: Prof. Corinna Mieth (Ruhr University Bochum): Just War, Human Rights and Humanitarian Interventions. - Luban, David. 1980. ‘Just War and Human Rights.’ Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 9, No.2, pp. 160-181- Walzer, Michael. 1980. ‘The Moral Standing of States: A Response to Four Critics.’ Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 209-229. | |
| 6 | A Human Right to Entry and Exit I - David Miller. Is There a Human Right to Immigrate? In Sarah Fine and Lea Ypi (eds.) Migration in Political Theory. The Ethics of Movement and Membership. Oxford UP: 2016, p.11-31 | |
| 7 | A Human Right to Entry and Exit II - Kieran Oberman. Immigration as a Human Right. In Sarah Fine and Lea Ypi (eds.) Migration in Political Theory. The Ethics of Movement and Membership. Oxford UP: 2016, p. 32-56 | |
| 8 | Health and Human Rights - Wolff, Jonathan. “The Content of the Human Right to Health”. in Cruft R., Liao S. M., and Renzo M. (eds.) Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. Oxford: 2015, pp. 491 – 501- Kimberley Brownlee. Do We Have a Human Right to the Political Determinants of Health? In Cruft R., Liao S. M., and Renzo M. (eds.) Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. Oxford: 2015, pp. 502-514 | |
| 9 | Feminism Perspectives on Human Rights - Alexandra Xanthaki. ‘When Universalism Becomes a Bully: Revisiting the Interplay Between Cultural Rights and Women's Rights.’ Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 41: 3, 2019, pp. 701-724 | |
| 10 | Democracy and Human Rights- Cristiano, Thomas “Self-Determination and the Human Right to Democracy”, in Cruft R., Liao S. M., and Renzo M. (eds.) Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. Oxford: 2015, p.459-480.- Fabienne Peter. A Human Right to Democracy? in Cruft R., Liao S. M., and Renzo M. (eds.) Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. Oxford: 2015, p.481-490 | |
| 11 | Human Rights and Socioeconomic Rights I - Gilabert, P. Labor human rights and human dignity. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 2016. 42(2), 171-199 | |
| 12 | Human Rights and Socioeconomic Rights II - Salomon ME. Emancipating human rights: Capitalism and the common good. Leiden Journal of International Law. 2023;36(4): 857-877. | |
| 13 | Human Rights and Climate Justice - Lecture: Prof. Petra Gümplová (Friedrich Schiller University Jena). - Gümplová, Petra. ‘Rights to natural resources and human rights’. In Environmental Human Rights. A Political Theory Perspective, Edited By Markku Oksanen, Ashley Dodsworth, Selina O'Doherty. Routledge, 2018, Chapter 5.- Schapper, A. (2018). Climate justice and human rights. International Relations, 32(3), 275-295. | |
| 14 | Human Rights and Animal Rights - P. Singer, Practical Ethics, Cambridge University Press. 2011, pp. 48-70 - Cavalieri, Paola. The Animal Question: Why Nonhuman Animals Deserve Human Rights, Oxford University Press, 2001, chapter 6, pp. 125-143 | |
| 15 | Universalism and Multiculturalism: Asian and Islamic Perspectives - Li, Xiarong “Asian Values and the Universality of Human Rights” PHR, pp. 397-408- An-Nai’im, Abdullahi A. “Human Rights in the Muslim World”, PHR, p.315-334 | |
| 16 | Human Rights: Critiques and New Challenges I - Justine Lacroix and Jean-Yves Pranchère. “Critiques of Human Rights in Contemporary Thought.” In Human Rights on Trial. A Genealogy of the Critique of Human Rights, Cambridge University Press, 2018, Chapter 1, pp. 25-58. | |
| 17 | Human Rights: Critiques and New Challenges II - Kaius Tuori and Iida Karjalainen. 2025. ‘The European far right and human rights language.’ The International Journal of Human Rights, 29:1, pp. 1-21 | |
| 18 | Human Rights: Critiques and New Challenges III - SHREYA ATREY. Beyond Universality. An Intersectional Justification of Human Rights. In Shreya Atrey and Peter Dunne (eds.), Intersectionality and Human Rights Law, 2020, Bloomsbury Publishing, Chapter 1, pp. 17-38 |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Assessment will take place by looking at four aspects of students’ performance: 1) Participation in class, 2) Presentation, 3) Finalpaper, 4) Final exam Grade Weights: Participation in class: 25% Presentation: 25% Final paper: 25% Final exam: 25%
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
1) Describe the three main approaches to the philosophical foundation of human rights
2) Describe and comment on the argument of one of the papers studied during the seminar. Students may pick among topics thatwere neither object of their in class presentation nor of their term paper.
For the topic of the final paper, students may pick among topics that were not the object of their class presentation.