Human rights are inextricably linked to the broader notion of social justice and serve as a critical instrument for promoting social progress and larger freedom the world over. The preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights acknowledges that “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” It is this departure point premise that motivates the scholarship produced by the CSSJ’s Human Rights Division and that serves as the common thread linking together each of the Fellow’s research.
The Human Rights Division engages a dynamic range of questions concerning the implications of human rights for social justice broadly construed. This exploration is undertaken from a variety of academic perspectives, including anthropological, legal, philosophical and religious studies approaches. Fellows focus on a range of human rights topics, including asylum and refugee rights, religious freedom, the role of nonstate actors in expanding the boundaries of human rights law, and the philosophical underpinnings of human rights norms. These efforts truly are global in scope and address implications for social justice both in the United States and abroad.
- Blitt, R.C. (2008). “Babushka Said Two Things-It Will Either Rain or Snow; it Either Will or Will Not: An Analysis of the Provisions and Human Rights Implications of Russia’s New Law on Nongovernmental Organizations as Told Through Eleven Russian Proverbs,” 40 Geo. Wash. Int’iorl L. Rev. 1
- Blitt, R.C. (2008) How to Entrench a De Facto State Church in Russia: A Guide in Progress, BYU L. Rev. 707-778
- Garthoff, J. (2009). “Meriting Concern and Meriting Respect,” Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy 5:2, 2011.
- Hackett, R.I.J. (edited) (2008) Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars. London: Equinox Publishers (480 pp.)
- Hackett, R.I.J. (2007) Competing Universalisms: New Discourses of Emancipation in the African Context. In: La rationalité, une ou plurielle?, ed. Paulin Houtondji. Dakar: CODESRIA, Paris: UNESCO, 163-171
- Hepner, T.R. (2009). In press. “What Freedom is This? Transnational Political and Legal Dimensions of Emergent Eritrean Human Rights Movements.” In W. Derman, A. Hellum, and K. Sandvik, eds. Remaking Human Rights.
- Hepner, T.R. (2009). Seeking Asylum in a Transnational Social Field: New Refugees and Struggles for Autonomy and Human Rights.” In D. O’Kane and T. R. Hepner, eds. Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development: Eritrean in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Berghahn Books. Pp. 115-133.
- McKanders, Karla. (2013). “Anatomy of an Uprising: Women, Democracy, and the Moroccan Feminist Spring.” Boston University International Law Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1.
- Reidy, D. (2012). “On the Human Right to Democracy: Searching for Sense Without Stilts.” Journal of Social Philosophy, v. 43, n. 2, pgs. 177-203.
- Reidy, D. (2010). “Human Rights and Liberal Toleration.” Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, v. 23, n. 2, pgs. 287-317.
Reprinted in Rawls and the Law, Thom Brooks, ed., Ashgate Publishing, 2012. - Reidy, D. (2009). “When Good Alone Isn’t Good Enough: Examining Griffin’s On Human Rights.” Social Theory and Practice, v. 35, n. 4, pgs. 623-647.
Reprinted in On Human Rights: Jim Griffin and his Critics, Roger Crisp, ed., Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012. - Reidy, D. (2007). “On Global Economic Justice: In Defense of Rawls.” Journal of Ethics, v.11, n. 2, pgs. 193-236.