PLSC 3240 - Human Rights Law

5 credit hours
The term human rights invokes social movements struggling for equality, justice, and recognition. It also brings into mind domestic constitutions and statutes, and international treaties that seek to protect fundamental rights. This course explores human rights as a legal concept - “legal” understood both as the text of the law, and as interpretations of law that guide social and political actors. It is a survey of human rights law, as well as a critical reading of the literature on human rights. What does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) stipulate as fundamental rights? What are some of the main legal instruments meant to protect human rights domestically and internationally? What is the relationship between the text of the law and the lived reality of populations? Why do so many movements resort to human rights to defend bodily integrity, socioeconomic justice, gender equality, and racial justice? Is human rights law an inherently meaningless conception in the world of power politics? These are the questions explored in this course.