Rights in Context

Abstract

This collection offers a snapshot of how rights are debated and employed in public discourse to reshape legal and political relations at the beginning of the twenty-first century. They explore how rights are used to challenge the state of affairs by individuals and groups who seek justice, and the strategies devised to defy the rights established by those who wish to recast the social and political order. This volume discusses rights, firstly, in relation to actual events and issues faced by policymakers, courts, international agencies, or ordinary people. These range from the demands of minority groups living in the West to freely practice their culture and/or religion, to the threat of terrorism, the regulation of asylum rights, the investor's rights to disclosure and the rights of artists to freedom of expression. Secondly, rights discourse is examined in relation to attempts to redefine the form and content of rights, for example, by banning the right to wear religious symbols in public institutions or detaining terrorism suspects without trial. Thirdly, rights discourse is explored in connection with the attempts to develop new notions of rights, such as 'human security', which can more effectively respond to the challenges of late modern societies. Finally, the statuses of rights in sociological theory and socio-legal research are briefly discussed and analysed. Contents: Introduction: snapshots of the rights discourse, Reza Banakar; Law, rights and justice in late modern society: a tentative theoretical framework, Reza Banakar; Part I The Critiques of Rights: A sociological critique of rights, Max Travers; The 'rights' conundrum: poverty of philosophy amidst poverty, Radha D'Souza; Dangerous rights: of citizens and humans, Kate Nash; The neglected minority: the penurious human rights of artists, Paul Kearns; Truth and myth in critical theory, Eric Heinze. Part II The Challenges of Rights: Defacing Muslim women: dialectical meanings of dress in the body politic, Susan Edwards; Beyond the sacred and the secular: Muslim women, the law and the delivery of justice, Samia Bano; The right to be different: the position of Muslim migrants in The Netherlands, Halleh Ghorashi; It's not about free expression: a sociological examination of the Danish cartoon controversy, Sarah Dreier; Pre-empting terrorism? Two case studies of UK's anti-terrorism legislation, Reza Banakar. Part III The Strategies of Rights: Human rights strategies in an age of counter-terrorism, Daniel Moeckli; 'Terrorist lists' and procedural human rights: a collision between UN law, EU law and Strasbourg law?, Bill Bowring; Human security and international law: much ado about nothing?, Emma McClean. Part IV The Reconstruction of Rights: Rights and diverse effects in EC law: a Hohfeldian approach to the doctrine of direct effect of directives, Joxerramon Bengoetxea and Niilo Jaaskinen; Investor's rights to disclosure of complex financial instruments: a risk symmetric analysis, Joseph Tanega; Women, culture and human rights: feminist interventions in human rights law?, Harriet Samuels; Rights and responsibilities, Hanne Petersen; Index.