The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights

Description

This Handbook provides an intellectually rigorous and accessible overview of the relationship between natural law and human rights. It fills a crucial gap in the literature with leading scholarship on the importance of natural law as a philosophical foundation for human rights and its significance for contemporary debates. The themes covered include: the role of natural law thought in the history of human rights; human rights scepticism; the different notions of 'subjective right'; the various foundations for human rights within natural law ethics; the relationship between natural law and human rights in religious traditions; the idea of human dignity; the relation between human rights, political community and law; human rights interpretation; and tensions between human rights law and natural law ethics. This Handbook is an ideal introduction to natural law perspectives on human rights, while also offering a concise summary of scholarly developments in the field.

Tom Angier is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. He is the author of Natural Law Theory and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Ethics. Iain T. Benson is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, Australia; Extraordinary Professor, University of the Free State, South Africa; and a Barrister. He co-drafted the South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms (2010) and has published extensively on constitutional law, human rights, conscience, religion, and pluralism. Mark Retter is Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, pursuing research on human rights in modernity and secularisation. He is co-editor of the International Law and Peace Settlements.