Human Duties and the Limits of Human Rights Discourse

Provides a comprehensive discussion of the controversial human duties declarations promulgated in recent decades

Uses Kant's taxonomy of duties as a guideline to distinguish genuine from spurious human rights' claims

Challenges the pervasive idea that (duties of) justice is/are more important than (duties of) virtue

Provides a critique of the dominance of human rights discourse not only from the 'external' perspective of political philosophy, but also from within human rights discourse itself

Includes a study of the Universal Declaration's drafting history, which shows that the drafters initially meant to achieve a balance between rights and duties, a lesson that has since then been forgotten