The Idea of International Human Rights Law
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Published By Oxford University Press

9780198749844, 9780191814174

Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

Chapter 4 examines the core United Nations human rights treaties. It shows how we can think of these as complex systems, the result of the interactions of the states parties and the treaty bodies. The work first explains the regime on opposability and denunciation, which establishes the binding nature of the conventions, before considering the law on reservations, noting how this differs from the scheme under general international law. The chapter then turns to the interpretation of convention rights, detailing the distinctive pro homine (‘in favour of the individual’) approach applied to human rights treaties. The law on interpretation also requires that we examine the subsequent practice of states parties, as well as the pronouncements of the treaty bodies. The doctrine of evolutionary interpretation explains how the ‘ordinary meaning’ of treaty terms can evolve with developments in technical and scientific knowledge, changes in societal understandings, and wider modifications in regulatory approaches outside of the human rights treaty system.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

Chapter 3 tells the story of human rights in the United Nations. The work shows how we can understand the UN as a complex system of regulatory authority, which evolves with changes in the behaviours of the Member States and United Nations bodies as they respond to new information. The analysis demonstrates that, up until the 1960s, human rights provided a set of moral guidelines only, informing states how they should treat those subject to their jurisdiction and control. That was until the newly independent African countries joined the Organization and turned their attention to the problem of systematic racial discrimination in southern Africa, especially after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, when UN action against South Africa and South West Africa (Namibia) transformed the non-binding moral code contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into a body of international human rights law, with the development explained by the importance of subsequent agreements and practices in the evolution of the regulatory authority of the United Nations.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

The Introduction observes the emergence of International Human Rights Law as a discipline in its own right, related to, but different from, international law. It notes the criticisms made by some general international lawyers of the distinct methodologies used by human rights lawyers, making the point that any differences between ‘international law’ and ‘international human rights law’ can only be explained by the influence of the moral concept of human rights on international law doctrine and practice—in the same way the Moon influences the Earth’s tides. The work explains how we can use complexity theory to examine the influence of human rights on international law, introducing complexity theory as a methodology in international law. It then explains the general approach in the book.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

Chapter 5 looks at customary human rights law, explaining how we can think about custom as a self-organizing system, the emergent property of the performative acts of states, who literally ‘speak’ customary human rights into existence; customary law then binds the same countries that brought it into existence, exhibiting the characteristics of a complex system. Complexity serves to remind us of the importance of path dependence, the power of events, and possibilities of change as states respond to new information. The work shows how the measures targeting apartheid South Africa after the Sharpeville Massacre resulted in the first customary human right on the prohibition of racial discrimination, as well as an evolution in the methodology for custom-formation, allowing reference to General Assembly resolutions and law-making treaties. The chapter further demonstrates how the status of persistent objector was denied to apartheid South Africa, confirming the non-negotiable character of fundamental human rights.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

Chapter 7 summarizes and clarifies the argument in the book, explaining the distinctive nature of International Human Rights Law. It reminds us that states invented human rights in 1945 with the inauguration of the United Nations Charter. They explained the meaning of the term ‘human rights’ three years later with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, although the concept evolved in a radically different direction than originally expected as states responded to events in apartheid southern Africa. The central insight of this final chapter is that the moral concept of human rights, which emerges from the legal practice, then influences the legal practice. We see this with the introduction, without debate, of the system of Universal Periodic Review, in the pro homine approach to the interpretation of human rights treaties, and in the modern methodology for customary international law formation, which looks first to the communication acts of the United Nations General Assembly. The book concludes by showing how the influence of the idea of human rights on the legal practices can explain the fragmentation of international law and, relatedly, the special nature of International Human Rights Law.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

Chapter 1 examines the different ways the idea of ‘human rights’ is understood in the philosophical literature: as a modern idiom for natural rights, establishing a moral code for the treatment of human beings; as defining the proper relationship between the state and the individual; as explaining the circumstances when secondary agents of justice can intervene in the internal affairs of a state; and as a discrete area of international law practice. Noting the lack of agreement on the meaning of the term ‘human rights’, the analysis here looks to develop a practice-based account, explaining the idea of human rights by reference to the practice, which, in turn, creates its own vision of the value of the human person in political societies.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

Chapter 2 explains how we can use complexity theory to make sense of the international law system. Drawing on the insights of our colleagues in the natural sciences, it shows how we can conceptualize international law as the emergent property of the actions and interactions of states, evolving as states respond to unexpected changes in the behaviours of other states or occurrences in the outside world. The work takes the key insights from complexity—self-organization, emergence and downward causation, problem-solving, synchronic evolution, bifurcations, path dependence, events, and attractors—and shows how these can be applied to international law.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

Chapter 6 turns first to the work of the philosopher John Searle to explain the objective reality of human rights, showing how states, through their discursive practices, created a notion of human rights that affirmed the importance of equal status, physical and psychological integrity, personhood, participation, and minimum welfare rights. In the first decade and a half of the existence of human rights, it was for a country alone to decide on the necessary measures (if any) to give effect to the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All that changed after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, when UN Member States transformed a moral code of human rights into a network of binding international law obligations, with a role for secondary agents of justice that included both dystopia avoidance measures and the promotion of the utopia of ‘all human rights for all’.


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