Redress: Rights and Other Remedies, A Comment on David Engel's Article on Rights Consciousness

Abstract

In responding to David Engel’s Article, this Comment analyzes how Engel situates contemporary perspectives on rights drawing from his research in Thailand. Engel shows how the discourse of rights carries with it meanings that have multiple and changing connotations and onthe-ground effects. Following on Engel’s questions about how consciousness of rights spreads and takes shape in local contexts, this Comment calls for expanding the substantive and methodological bases for understanding the changing effects of rights discourses. This Comment suggests that a study of the broader social and political implications, including the costs, of rights discourses (internationally, nationally, and locally) permits greater substantive awareness of the changing social and political landscapes. This can only be done with the kind of on-the-ground longitudinal study that Engel has conducted. INTRODUCTION: A MODEST INQUIRY David Engel’s thoughtful Article asks a modest question: Why do the ordinary people of Chiangmai, a province in northern Thailand, not use “rights talk”? To answer this question, Engel leads us through the trajectory of Thailand’s embrace of liberal rights from the end of the eighteenth century onward. Although still a kingdom, Thailand’s constitution and formal legal codes suggest that the government has endowed its citizens with some rights. Yet, despite the positive rights afforded them, ordinary people have not embraced the language of rights in all matters. * J.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor, Law, Societies, and Justice Program, University of