Paradigms of International Human Rights Law

Paradigms of International Human Rights Law explores the legal, ethical, and other policy consequences of three core structural features of international human rights law: the focus on individual rights instead of duties; the division of rights into substantive and nondiscrimination categories; and the use of positive and negative right paradigms. Part I explains the types of individual, corporate, and state duties available, and analyzes the advantages anddisadvantages of incorporating each type of duty into the world public order, with special attention to supplementing individual rights with explicit individual and state duties. Part II evaluates how substantive rights and nondiscrimination rights are used to protect similar values through differentchannels; summarizes the nondiscrimination right in international practice; proposes refinements; and explains how the paradigms synergize. Part III discusses negative and positive paradigms by dispelling a common misconception about positive rights, and then justifies and defines the concept of negative rights, justifies positive rights, and concludes with a discussion of the ethical consequences of structuring the human rights system on a purely negative paradigm. For each set ofalternatives, the author analyzes how human rights law incorporates the paradigms, the technical legal implications of the various alternatives, and the ethical and other policy consequences of using each alternative while dispelling common misconceptions about the paradigms and considering the argumentsjustifying or opposing one or the other.

By offering interesting and innovative insights into how to rethink the three proposed paradigms of IHRL, this book represents a valuable tool to begin the ambitious project of deconstructing HR law and theory and to foster further research and debate on how HR law both functions and should function in the world public order.

Aaron X. Fellmeth is Professor of Law and the Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University. He specializes in public international law, international human rights law, international legal theory, and international business transactions. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Law Association (American Branch), where he is also Director of Studies and Chair of theInternational Human Rights Committee. He has published widely inter alia in public international law, international legal theory, and international human rights law. He authored a coursebook entitled Law of International Business Transactions (now in its second edition, 2011). He co-authored (with Maurice Horwitz) theGuide to Latin in International Law (Oxford, 2009).