Human Rights: Between Idealism and Realism (Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law) - Softcover

"In Human Rights: Between Realism and Idealism Christian Tomuschat fulfills his title's promise. His account of the place of human rights in domestic legal systems and the international legal order is lucid and thorough, and it offers few concessions either to cynically inclined realists or to starry-eyed idealists.... Human Rights offers an erudite and admirably well-organized overview of the network of formal legal rules and institutions that support human rights."--The American Journal of International Law "Overall, this is a good book. It is well organized and clearly written, and includes a wealth of important information (and citations). It will be particularly helpful for courses that want to place emphasis on human rights practice. It is also a healthy reminder of the fact that, despite many setbacks, the human rights discourse is here to stay."--Political Science Quarterly "In Human Rights: Between Realism and Idealism Christian Tomuschat fulfills his title's promise. His account of the place of human rights in domestic legal systems and the international legal order is lucid and thorough, and it offers few concessions either to cynically inclined realists or to starry-eyed idealists.... Human Rights offers an erudite and admirably well-organized overview of the network of formal legal rules and institutions that support human rights."--The American Journal of International Law "Overall, this is a good book. It is well organized and clearly written, and includes a wealth of important information (and citations). It will be particularly helpful for courses that want to place emphasis on human rights practice. It is also a healthy reminder of the fact that, despite many setbacks, the human rights discourse is here to stay."--Political Science Quarterly "In Human Rights: Between Realism and Idealism Christian Tomuschat fulfills his title's promise. His account of the place of human rights in domestic legal systems and the international legal order is lucid and thorough, and it offers few concessions either to cynically inclined realists or to starry-eyed idealists.... Human Rights offers an erudite and admirably well-organized overview of the network of formal legal rules and institutions that support human rights."--The American Journal of International Law "Overall, this is a good book. It is well organized and clearly written, and includes a wealth of important information (and citations). It will be particularly helpful for courses that want to place emphasis on human rights practice. It is also a healthy reminder of the fact that, despite many setbacks, the human rights discourse is here to stay."--Political Science Quarterly "In Human Rights: Between Realism and Idealism Christian Tomuschat fulfills his title's promise. His account of the place of human rights in domestic legal systems and the international legal order is lucid and thorough, and it offers few concessions either to cynically inclined realists or to starry-eyed idealists.... Human Rights offers an erudite and admirably well-organized overview of the network of formal legal rules and institutions that support human rights."--The American Journal of International Law "Overall, this is a good book. It is well organized and clearly written, and includes a wealth of important information (and citations). It will be particularly helpful for courses that want to place emphasis on human rights practice. It is also a healthy reminder of the fact that, despite many setbacks, the human rights discourse is here to stay."--Political Science Quarterly

This volume presents human rights in action, focusing on their effectiveness as legal tools designed to benefit human beings. By combining conceptual analysis with an emphasis on procedures and mechanisms of implementation, it provides a multidimensional overview of human rights. After examining briefly the history of human rights, the author analyses the intellectual framework that forms the basis of their legitimacy. In particular, he covers the concept of universality and the widely used model that classifies human rights into clusters of different "generations". The volume then moves on to analyse the activities of the political institutions of the United Nations, the expert bodies established by the relevant treaties and the international tribunals specifically entrusted at the regional level with protecting human rights. The author explains how and why in recent years, the classical array of politically inspired informal devices has been enriched by the addition of international criminal procedures and by endeavours to introduce civil suits against alleged individual violators of human rights.