Legalizing Human Rights: Some Reflections on the Limits and Flipsides of a Legal Ideal
(2016) Human Rights as a Basis for Reevaluating and Reconstructing the Law — ISBN: [9782802754022], 23-37, published
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- In the last fifty years, human rights law has grown dramatically in breadth, complexity and influence. The reach of human rights now extends to any field of the law and they are widely recognised as the ultimate criteria to evaluate the soundness of legal norms. This is no doubt an impressive evolution. And yet, I argue in this chapter that this apparent success is more fragile than it seems. The project of 'legalizing of human rights', which I understand as involving both the institution of a legal protection of human rights and their recognition as a fundamental norm of the legal order, despite important achievements, remains fraught with difficulties. First, experience shows that legalization of human rights presents certain flipsides. Second, as illustrated by recent developments, the attitude of European states and EU institutions indicates that, while accepting human rights in theory, in practice they remain ambivalent towards the constraints deriving from these norms.
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Ringelheim, J. (2016). Legalizing Human Rights: Some Reflections on the Limits and Flipsides of a Legal Ideal. In Arnaud Hoc, Stéphanie Wattier et Geoffrey Willems (ed.), Human Rights as a Basis for Reevaluating and Reconstructing the Law (pp. 23-37). Bruylant. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/217090