Translated from the Italian. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- Introduction -- Parallel worlds : international governance and the (utopian?) principles of international law. Hugo Grotius and the law of peoples -- Samuel Pufendorf and Emer de Vattel : Kant's 'miserable comforters' -- The rights of man and cosmopolitan law : Kantian roots in the current debate on rights -- International law and Western civilization -- International law, peace, and justice : Hans Kelsen's normativism -- Realist perspectives : historiography, international law, international relations -- Order and anarchy : the Grotian tradition -- The law of peoples and international law -- Islam and rights : Islamic and Arab charters of the rights of man -- The Third World and international law -- The foundation of human rights : an intercultural perspective -- Parallel worlds : international governance and the (utopian?) principles of international law.
Summary:
"Rights and Civilizations, translated from the Italian original, traces a history of international law to illustrate the origins of the Western colonial project and its attempts to civilize the non-European world. The book, ranging from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first, explains how the West sought to justify its own colonial conquests through an ideology that revolved around the idea of its own assumed superiority, variously attributed to Christian peoples (in the early modern age), Western 'civil' peoples (in the nineteenth century), and 'developed' peoples (at the beginning of the twentieth century), and now to democratic Western peoples. In outlining this history and discourse, the book shows that, while the Western conception may style itself as universal, it is in fact relative. This comes out by bringing the Western civilization into comparison with others, mainly the Islamic one, suggesting the need for an 'intercivilizational' approach to international law"-- Provided by publisher. "The book, ranging from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first, explains how the West sought to justify its own colonial conquests through an ideology that revolved around the idea of its own assumed superiority, variously attributed to Christian peoples (in the early modern age), Western "civil" peoples (in the nineteenth century), and "developed" peoples (at the beginning of the twentieth century), and now to democratic Western peoples. In outlining this history and discourse, the book shows that, while the Western conception may style itself as universal, it is in fact relative. This comes out by bringing the Western civilization into comparison with others, mainly the Islamic one, suggesting the need for an "intercivilizational" approach to international law"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.